Rural Advantage/Healthy Farms Conference set for February 5th and 6th in Lincoln
Sheryl Fellers, Dawson County Extension Service
The 2010 Rural Advantage/Healthy Farms Conference is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, February 5th and 6th at the Downtown Holiday Inn in Lincoln. This year’s conference is shaping up to be the best yet as we are putting together a very interesting and diversified conference for 2010. Our keynote speaker is Nebraska 1st District Congressman, Jeff Fortenberry. Congressman Fortenberry is a strong supporter of local foods and he will kick off the conference with a talk on “The Potential of Local Foods in Nebraska”. At this year’s conference we have programs that address sustainable production agriculture, alternative crops and enterprises, local food production systems and adding value to your product.
In production agriculture, there will be presentations on NRCS programs and resources for organic farmers and those transitioning to organic farming, organic farmers giving advice about transitioning, a farmer panel explaining the challenges of organic farming, a long-term no-till farmer discussing the use of cover crops in his cropping system and a farmer discussing what to do when the kids are gone.
There are also several sessions on alternative crops and enterprises for Nebraska and adding value to your product. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Entomologist, Marion Ellis will discuss getting started in beekeeping. Producers will discuss aronia berry production and growing hops for micro-breweries in the region. With wind energy being a topic of interest recently, there will be presentations on commercial wind power and wind and solar power systems for farms and homes. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) works with several clients in Nebraska each year at their Food Processing Center. There will be a presentation and tour of this facility on UNL’s East Campus by Jill Gifford, UNL Food Processing Manager. With more beef producers direct marketing their beef, any way you can add value will increase profits. Dr. Steve Jones from the UNL Meat Lab will explain and demonstrate how to add value to your beef cuts. Finally with more people in the region interested in local foods and organic foods, there will be a presentation on post harvest handling of produce by Kevin Loth, a commercial vegetable producer from the Lincoln area and a session on organic vegetable gardening by Dr. Tom Tomas an organic vegetable gardener.
Similar to 2009, we have a whole track on Saturday that will focus on holistic management. Topics discussed during this track include: holistic management of soil, the integration of cover crops, letting the animals do the work and resources for graziers.
Along with these programs, there is an excellent youth program scheduled for both days. There are workshops on: organic gardening, worms making soil from compost, ESI-Discover the Entrepreneur in You, From Earth to Sky and Everything in Between – Science in Nebraska, Wildcrafting with Farmer Bill, Building a Birdfeeder with Recycled Materials with a live screech owl from the Nature Center, Bee-ing a Beekeeper with Colleen Melvin, a SARE Youth Grant recipient and Healthy Snacks from Open Harvest.
There will be commercial and educational exhibits both days, a live auction of a variety of items Friday afternoon, a delicious All-Nebraska Meal on Friday evening and a silent auction of several different things on Saturday.
At lunch on Saturday, our capnote speaker is Dr. John Ikerd who will speak on Healthy Farms, Healthy Foods, Healthy Communities: The Rural Advantage. John is one of the pioneers of sustainable agriculture and has been a strong voice for sustainable agriculture for many years.
For a brochure of the conference go to http://nemaha.unl.edu/home or contact Gary Lesoing at (402) 274-4755 for information about this program. To register on-line go to http://go.unl.edu/healthyfarmsconference or www.healthyfarms.org.
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