Approximately 160 participants attended the August 3rd Farmers for Healthy Soil-Healthy Water Field Day at the Hammer & Kavazanjian Farms in Beaver Dam, WI. The Dodge County Farmers for Healthy Soil-Healthy Water have a mission of improving our community’s soil & water through conservation practices & education for the Rock River Watershed, which includes portions of Fond du Lac County. In the morning, Dr. Jerry Hatfield, Director, USDA National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment in Ames, IA, spoke on The impact of weather extremes on agriculture. Abbey Augarten, UW-Discovery Farms Project Coordinator, also shared information and results about UW-Discovery Farms Nitrogen Use Efficiency Trials. After lunch the group rotated to three field stations. At station one they learned about equipment for cover crop establishment from Bill Stangel, Charlie Hammer, Marty Weiss, and Bob Recker. At station two, Dr. Loretta Ortiz-Ribbing spoke with local producers (Dale Macheel, Jeff Gaska, and Brendon Blank) about the 7 on-farm cover crop trials she is conducting with local producers to explore cover crop establishment methods and timings. The third station featured local producers Tony Peirick, Jordan Crave, Andy Condon, David Roche, and Ricky Kratz, sharing their cover crop successes, failures, and experiences. The day ended with demonstrations of equipment that can be used to seed covers.
Mark your calendars for the Healthy-Soil-Healthy Water Fall Field Tour on Wednesday, September 19th. More information will be available soon.
https://www.facebook.com/uwexfdl/videos/474870349659101/
The video was created by Michelle Scarpace, Natural Resource Educator, UW Environmental Resources Center, and Jared Winter, Conservation Technician, Dodge County Land and Water Conservation Department.
