The annual Confronting Cropping Challenges programs are being held at Ithaca, Leigh, Randolph and Neligh during the first two weeks of December. These programs are highly-interactive and allow farmers to reflect on this year’s experiences and focus on solutions for future years – and as an added bonus, they can get their private pesticide license recertification.

The manure team will be holding a manure workshop in conjunction with the Confronting Cropping Challenges programs at two of the locations. The workshop will help row-crop farmers Save Money and Resist Stress and is designed for crop producers using manure on their cropland. You do not need to own your own livestock to attend. Participants can choose to attend either the Confronting Cropping Challenges program, the manure workshop, or both.

During the manure workshop, we’ll discover how to use manure to reduce the need for commercial fertilizer not only in the first growing season, but potentially for years to come. We’ll also talk about where commercial fertilizer can complement manure to get the best bang for your buck and help build your soil to reduce crop stresses during droughts and periods of excessive rainfall. To do all this, we’ll calculate the available nutrients in manure, learn how much manure to use on a field, discover how manure might make your farm more profitable and resilient in addition to enjoying a meal together!

The Confronting Cropping Challenges programs will run from 1-4 pm at each location, with Ithaca on December 3, Leigh on December 4, Randolph on December 10 and Neligh on December 12. The manure workshops will only be available in Randolph and Neligh and will include a meal. In Randolph, the workshop will follow Confronting Cropping Challenges and run until around 8 pm. In Neligh, the manure workshop will begin at 9 am and will end just prior to Confronting Cropping Challenges.

Pre-registration for all programs is available online now and is requested by November 27 to include you in the meal count!

This workshop utilizes an immersive curriculum that is highly tailored to those in attendance making it very effective and able to be applied to your operation later. We hope to see you at either Randolph or Neligh in December.