Curl Up Next to Fire with our Newsletter – Fall/Winter 2020

This season we have combined the Fall and Winter Newsletter.

In This Issue

Focus on Agriculture, by Kirsten Workman
News, Events and Info You Should Know
Winter Planning for 2021 Farm Risk Management, by Jake Jacobs
Nitrogen, An Overlooked Macronutrient, by Kirsten Workman
Transition to Grazing: Farmers Thinking Outside the Box, by Cheryl Cesario
Giving Credit Where Credit is Due: Farmer’s Practices Make Gains Towards Meeting TMDL, by Kristin Williams

View the Full PDF Here!

See our highlighted article on Nitrogen management (which will become a series) as a blog post.

Important update on our No-Till, Cover Crop Symposium included in the newsletter:

We have made the difficult decision to forego our annual in-person No-Till and Cover Crop Symposium in order to comply with COVID safety precautions, and keep folks safe and healthy. But we have some other exciting options in the works. The 2021 event was intended to be a partnership between our conference and the Northeast Cover Crop Council’s Annual Conference. The NECC Annual Conference has moved online and will be held on March 4, 2021. Save the date and stay tuned for more details including an agenda which will be posted soon on the http://northeastcovercrops.com/ website. In addition the Champlain Valley Crop, Soil and Pasture and Northwest Crops and Soils Teams are working on bringing the NTCC Symposium ‘hyper-local” by potentially hosting smaller in-person meetings (with remote participation available) to build on the virtual NECCC meeting and fill the void of the NTCC Symposium. If there are topics you’re interested in hearing more about in your locale, reach out to Kirsten at kirsten.workman@uvm.edu and let her know.

Spring Newsletter is Here!

View the Newsletter Here (pdf link)

In This Issue:

Focus on Agriculture, by Jeff Carter
News, Events & Info You Should Know
Opportunities for Grazing Funding, by Cheryl Cesario
Grassland Manure Injection: By The Numbers, by Kirsten Workman
Two Bedrock Professors Retiring: Will Be Missed in Jeffords Hall and Beyond
End of Gypsum Project Leaves us with Important Lessons and Questions, by Kristin Williams
USDA Authorized Flexibilities Help Producers During the Coronavirus Pandemic, by Jake Jacobs
Notes on the Wild Side, by Jeff Carter

Newsletter Highlight From Grassland Manure Injection: By The Numbers (pg. 4) With funding from VAAFM’s Clean Water Fund and the help of Ken and Debbie Hicks at Hicks Equipment, we purchased the right equipment from the Netherlands. With the expertise of Eric Severy of Matthew’s Trucking to operate it, we began demonstrating the utility of this system. Shallow slot grassland manure injection gets liquid dairy manure just two inches below the soil where it is protected from runoff during rain events while still well within the root zone where the plants will use it. Read More

Save the Date: 2021 No-Till Cover Crop Symposium March 4-5, 2021. More information coming soon. We’re joining forces with the Northeast Cover Crop Council to bring you a full day and a half of information related to no-till and cover cropping. go.uvm.edu/ntccs If you missed this year’s symposium you can also read presentation pdfs and the proceedings online.

News, Events and Info You Should Know (2018 Winter Newsletter)

2018 Vermont Farm Show – January 30, 31 and February 1, 2018 Your product entries for the Vermont Farm Show can be dropped off at a nearby Extension office or other location by 4:00 p.m. on Friday, January 26 or drop them off at the Champlain Valley Expo on Monday, January 29 between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (judging starts at 4:00 p.m.). Give us a call to find out which offices are participating and what the rules are. Read more about the farm show at www.vtfarmshow.com. We hope to see you there!

Nutrient Management Planning (NMPs)
Winter is the time to create and update your plan. NMP classes begin in January. If you need an NMP but don’t have one, please contact your local conservation district to get the process started for next winter’s classes. NMP update sessions for those farmers who have already taken our class and finished an NMP with us will be held in February and March. Tentative dates in Middlebury are February 8 and 15, and March 8 and 14, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. An RSVP is requested – please call our office to confirm you are coming. Remember, an NMP has to be updated every year to be accurate and reflect Vermont RAPs regulations. If you need to find out whether your operation is required to have an NMP call us, 802-388-4969, or check out Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM) online at go.uvm.edu/raps.

8th Annual Organic Dairy Producers Conference
Thursday, March 15, 2018 at Vermont Technical College. More details to follow at go.uvm.edu/crop-soil-events.

Farm Business Clinics
The clinics will run from January through April 2018. This is an opportunity for farmers to meet privately, one-on-one, for 90 minutes with a UVM Extension Farm Business staff member. Meetings are conveniently scheduled at various locations across Vermont. Use the time to develop a balance sheet, update financial statements, review a business plan, consider changes to your business, and more. Registration is $25. For more information about this program contact 1-866-860-1382, or register online at go.uvm.edu/businessclinics2018. Ongoing Water Quality Business Planning is an additional in-depth program also offered by UVM Extension.

5th Annual No-Till and Cover Crop Symposium – March 1, 2018 DoubleTree by Hilton (formerly the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center) in Burlington, Vt.

Registration Is Now Open
Learn the latest techniques! Discover how your neighbors are using this integrated system of cover crops and no (or less) tillage to create better soil health, increase profitability and meet water quality goals. Learn from other farmers, talk to your local ag dealers about equipment or seed, speak to NRCS about funding, listen to regional and national experts, and hear about research at UVM and in nearby states. This is the fifth year of this conference! If you haven’t come in a couple years, now is the time to come back and celebrate. Let’s keep the momentum going! For more information and to register go to go.uvm.edu/ntcc.

View Our Entire Newsletter HERE

2016 No-Till and Cover Crop Symposium

Our 3rd Annual No-Till & Cover Crops Symposium:

Our symposium has come and gone but you can find information about it below, including proceedings, links and presentations.

See you next February! Thank you to all our speakers and participants for a great symposium!

Please respect primary authorship of presentations and research.

NTCC2016

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Check out our proceedings, full of useful information from our speakers.

–> NTCC Proceedings_2016

Guest Speakers:

John Kemmeren, a NY dairymen with 40 years of no-till experience on his 200 head dairy farm. He will share successes and challenges of no-till and cover cropping.

Dr. Kevin Bradley, associate professor and extension weed scientist at the University of Missouri. He will share his perspectives on how cover crops, herbicides, and good weed control can work in a no-till system.

More information about Dr. Bradley’s research can be found at: http://plantsci.missouri.edu/faculty/bradley.cfm and http://weedscience.missouri.edu/

Odette Menard, a soil conservation honoree and employee in Quebec’s Ministry of Agriculture will share her insight into helping farmers identify strategies to build soil health, increase yields, improve economics, and reduce erosion.

Other speakers and facilitators from UVM Extension:

Jeff Carter
Dr. Heather Darby
Kirsten Workman: Workman_NTCC_Cover Crop Mix_Feb2016
Jeff Sanders

As with previous years, we will also have a great panel discussion:
* Mark Anderson, Land View Farms * Kevin Kocsak, Salem Farm Supply *Larry Gervais, Gervais Family Farm * Brad Thomas, Jillian Holsteins *

The UVM Extension’s Champlain Valley Crop, Soil & Pasture Team & the Northwest Crops & Soils Program invited all farmers and technical advisers to attend this event dedicated to No-Till and Cover Cropping systems for field crop growers in our area.

NTCC2016B

Thank You to Our Sponsors!!!

Platinum Sponsor:

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Gold Sponsors:

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Silver Sponsors:

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Bronze Sponsors:

Scott Magnan’s Custom Service

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Thank You to Our Other Supporting Organizations:

Conservation Innovation Grant

USDA NRCS

2015 No-Till and Cover Crop Symposium

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Sheraton Hotel & Conference Center | Burlington, VT

Miss the Symposium? You can still learn about the information presented:

2015 NTCC Proceedings

THE CONFERENCE BROCHURE

Check out this awesome Across the Fence Video, that was shot at the symposium, and in the studio with Kirsten Workman and Jeff Sanders.

To view PDFs of the individual presentations, click on the links below.

Speakers Included:

John Koepke and his family own and operate a 350 cow dairy farm in SE Wisconsin. They are 2011 Leopold Conservation Award Winners and 2011 Dairy Men of the Year and have been no-tillers for more than 25 years: John Koepke’s Presentation
Gerard Troisi is crop advisor/production consultant since 1991, consulting on 24,000 acres in central PA. He works with operators who no-till or are transitioning, and is skilled at increasing production on marginal soils while reducing input costs and adjusting production practices: Gerard Troisi’s Presentation
Lucas Criswell and his father farm in the hills of the Chesapeake Bay watershed in central Pennsylvania. They have been no tilling for over 30 years and now utilize high residue cover crops: Lucas Criswell’s Presentation
Pierre-Olivier Gaucher is the owner of Terralis & convened a consortium of Canadian farmers who are changing their cropping techniques to improve soil health. They developed a crop rotation to include cover crops, winter cereals and interseeding in corn: Pierre-Olivier Gaucher’s Presentation, Pierre-OLivier Gaucher’s Video
Heather Darby, UVM Extension Agronomist: Heather Darby’s Presentation
Kirsten Workman, UVM Extension: Kirsten Workman’s Presentation
VERMONT FARMER PANELISTS:
- Richard Hall, Fairmont Farms (E. Montpelier): Richard Hall’s Presentation
- Ron & Chad Machia, Machia & Sons (Sheldon)
- Shawn Gingue, Gingue Bros. Dairy (Fairfax)
- Scott Magnan, Custom Service (St. Albans)
- Gerard Vorsteveld, Vorsteveld Farm (Panton)

(Please respect the pdfs as original content).

Thank you to our 2015 Sponsors:

champlain.crops@uvm.edu | (802) 388-4969

2014 No-Till and Cover Crop Symposium

First Ever UVM Extension

No-Till & Cover Crop

Symposium

February 19 & 20, 2014

Sheraton Hotel & Conference Center | Burlington, VT

Click HERE for the complete conference brochure and agenda!

Did you miss the symposium…here is some of the information that was presented during the two-day conference.

The UVM Extension Champlain Valley Crop, Soil & Pasture Team and the Northwest Crops & Soils Program were joined by farmers and technical advisers at the first conference in New England dedicated to No-Till and Cover Cropping systems for field crop growers in our area. We welcomed speakers from around the country and from Vermont – including Extension specialists and researchers, farmers and consultants.