Two-day Farming Evolution event discusses climate, weather, crops

The 10th annual Farming Evolution event was held on Feb. 21 and 22 at the Holyoke Event Center with approximately 150 producer attendees representing Phillips, Chase, Perkins, Yuma and other counties in the region.
Among the many agricultural related subjects presented and discussed were plant/microbe relationships, the differences between climate and weather, cover crops, and no-tilling.
“There were some 20 vendors representing their organizations and specialties besides the presenters,” Allyn Robinson, of the Haxtun Conservation District, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said.
The event opened on Wednesday with Michael “Storm” Casper of Understanding Ag, LLC with A Path of Hope presentation on the outlook of our agriculture future. Dr. James White, Professor, Rutgers University, gave a presentation on plant/microbe relationships.
Dannele Peck, an economist and Director of the Northern Plains Climate Hub (NPCH) gave a presentation on soil health practices in relation to weather and climate events. Presently our area is in an El Nino event producing enough rain to give a positive outlook for a predictably good transition phase into the La Nina of the later autumn period.
Cindy Lair of the Colorado Department of Ag had an information table among the vendors. She discussed the Colorado Soil Health Program which uses the STAR tool to give the conservation districts and producers planning, financial and technical resources and an assessment tool to rate their efforts to improve their soil in one field (to start). The goal is to help reduce the risks associated with trying different practices, like cover crops, no-till, varying crop rotations, help build resilience and make the soil “sponge” hold more water rather than letting it evaporate on the hot, bare ground.
Future Farmers of America volunteers from Haxtun, Holyoke and Julesburg assisted the caterers in serving the lunch of beef brisket, roll, beans, fruit, and peach cobbler.
Discussions between the producer attendees, speakers and vendors during the break ran the gamut of the material previously presented.
Afternoon presentations included Learning From the Wisdom of the Soil by Clinton Wilson, Director, AgWell, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union; Wheatstem Sawfly Management & Soil Health Practices by Adam Osterholzer, Research Associate, Colorado State University; and Allowing the Balances of Our Soils to Work, by Rick Bieber, South Dakota farmer.
Thursday’s event included a group discussion, What We Have Learned Through the FARMS Project, given by Megan Shipanski, Associate Professor, Colorado State University; Curt Sayles, Colorado farmer, and Joel Grosbach, Nebraska farmer. The Farmers Advancing Regenerative Management Systems is led by the Colorado Conservation Tillage Association. The speakers gave an overview of the data gathered across working farms in the project.
More information about the FARMS project can be found at: https://farmsproject.org.