The calendar of soil health events around the Hoosier state is getting full in June. The Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative (CCSI) keeps a regular calendar as part of its soil health efforts in Indiana. Lisa Holscher, Soil Health Program Manager says many of the events coming next month are sponsored by Purdue Extension, one of the CCSI partners.
“There will be lots of hot topics,” she told HAT. “Of course early and mid season diagnostics dealing with our crops in the state. Palmer amaranth field day, well if you even heard wind of issues with glyphosate resistance palmer amaranth you know how critical this topic is, not just to farmers who have adopted conservation cropping systems, but conventional tillers, any row crop farmer out there. It’s some critical information that we want to make sure our partners and our farmers have in front of them.”
The first CCSI summer event is on the Don Villwock farm in southern Indiana on July 8th. The focus will be on how to use irrigation systems in soil health.
Holscher says they cover “how we can use the systems to improve soil health and how improved soil health can work to improve the efficiency of irrigation. Don happens to have a center pivot on the field in which he has a replicated strip trial, our research for CCSI, so it just seemed like a great fit.”
The list of June events in Indiana includes:
• NW: Conservation in the City, the 2014 Hoosier SWCS Summer Meeting in Indianapolis; June 6
• NW: Early Season Diagnostic Workshop, in West Lafayette; June 18
• NW: Weed Management in Conservation Cropping Systems in Clinton/Boone County; June 19 (save the date)
• NW: Palmer Amaranth Field Day, in Twelve Mile; June 27
• SE: Southeast Purdue Agricultural Center Field Day, in Butlerville; July 1
• SE: Mid-Season Diagnostic Workshop, in Butlerville; July 2
• SW: Farm Management Tour, by the Purdue Department of Agricultural Economics, in Spencer and Dubois Counties; June 16-17
And in July the CCSI Field Day: Leveraging Irrigation to Improve Soil Health, at Villwock Farms in Edwardsport, IN; July 8. Registration is available for that at www.VillwockFieldDay.eventbrite.com.
To have an event listed on the Soil Health Calendar or register for the updates that are published every other week, email ccsi@iaswcd.org.