23nd annual gathering of No-Till Nation hits Cincinnati this January with 45 presenters
Behind the theme of "Building Better No-Till Practices," the 2015 National No-Tillage Conference (NNTC) from Jan. 14-17 lands on the banks of the Ohio River in Cincinnati, Ohio, for the fifth time in the conference's 23-year history.The just-completed conference program, now available at www.NoTillConference.com, offers cutting-edge farmers 45 presentations over 4 highly valuable days of learning. Sharing the best no-till management practices and ideas to improve no-tillers' bottom line, speakers include no-tillers, agronomists, consultants and university experts from South and North America teeing up topics ranging from soil biology to precision ag to fertility management to cover cropping and much more.
The 23rd annual event includes 17 general session presentations, 28 classrooms and 69 roundtables. Following is a sample of topics and speakers lined up to present nearly 100 hours of in-depth no-till learning at the Hilton Netherland Plaza in downtown Cincinnati.
- "Where Plants Thrive, Soil Is Healthy (And Understanding Why That Is)" Jill Clapperton, the principal scientist at Rhizoterra Inc. and a world-renowned soil biologist, will help farmers better understand what lives and must thrive below the soil surface to regenerate and maintain healthy soil structure in a no-till system.
- "A Brazilian Perspective To Making Continuous No-Till Work" - South American no-tiller Franke Dijkstra returns 19 years later to the NNTC to share lessons learned over the past two decades in making continuous no-till work on his Brazilian farm.
- "YEP The No-Till Corn Management System That Offers Results" National corn yield champion David Hula of Charles City, Va., reveals some of the key tenets to raising high-yielding no-till corn, and will also offer a classroom on the value of wheat in the no-till cropping rotation.
- The Thursday afternoon general session tackles no-till fertility issues, including Jim Hoorman of Ohio State University on "Ways To Keep Phosphorus In The Soil Profile In A No-Till System," and Saeed Khan of the University of Illinois on "The Potassium Paradox: A Path To Profitability With No-Till."
- Keynote speaker David Brandt will share more than four decades of no-till lessons learned with his Wednesday general session, "43 Years Of Trying Something Different To Improve A No-Till System," while his Saturday morning classroom will look at how the Carroll, Ohio, no-tiller uses cover crops to reduce his reliance on applied nitrogen.
- Scott Shearer, Ohio State University ag engineer and precision specialist, will help no-tillers understand the potential for productivity gains with "Big Data Discovering The Value Of An Underutilized Asset." He will also share how precision technology is driving equipment development toward supervised autonomy or unmanned field machinery.
- Numerous no-tillers will share years of field-proven best practices and ideas, including Jamie Scott, Pierceton, Ind.; Bryan Jorgensen, Ideal, S.D.; Brian Watkins, Kenton, Ohio; Bill Lehmkuhl, Minster, Ohio; Steve Groff, Holtwood, Pa.; Cameron Mills, Walton, Ind.; Steve Bergerm Wellman, Iowa; Mike Shuter, Frankton, Ind.; Jerry Peery, Clinton, Ky.; Brian Kitterman, Harford City, Ind.; and Roger Harrington, Ollie, Iowa.
Darrell Bruggink, executive editor and publisher of No-Till Farmer and the organizer of the National No-Tillage Conference, says both experienced no-tillers and farmers considering adopting no-tillage practices will get dozens of practical tips to use in their operations and be challenged to improve their farming system.
"With 114 educational sessions to choose from between general assemblies, classrooms and roundtables, we're really trying to leave no stone unturned by offering farmers the broadest educational experience possible," Bruggink says. "Our goal is to help no-tillers identify actionable tactics to use on their farm to improve their practices and profitability and become energized for a new cropping year."
The final 12-page program can be viewed and downloaded at www.NoTillConference.com. Registration is just $309 per person, with a special $282 rate for additional farm or family members.
The event is co-sponsored by No-Till Farmer and 14 industry-leading companies, including Ag Leader Technology, Agro-Culture Liquid Fertilizers, Bayer CropScience, Case IH, Cover Crop Solutions, Equipment Technologies (Apache sprayers), Gypsoil, Koch Agronomic Services (Agrotain), Needham Ag Technologies, SFP, Syngenta, Thurston Mfg. (Blu-Jet), Titan International and Yetter Mfg.
10.9.2014