Soil health, cover crops, manure use, and grazing annual forages (cover crops) will be among the topics at the Southeast Nebraska Soil Health Conference March 5. It will be held at the Kimmel Ag Expo Center at 198 Plum St. in Syracuse.

Registration, coffee and donuts will begin at 8:30 a.m. The program will begin at 9 a.m. with Nebraska Extension Engineer Paul Jasa presenting on no-till/cover crop research being conducted at the Rogers Memorial Farm east of Lincoln. He also will provide tips for planting into cover crops. Stefan Gailans, field coordinator with Practical Farmers of Iowa, will report about on-farm research trials conducted with cover crops in corn and soybean cropping systems. He will discuss the effect of cover crops on corn and soybean yields. Also presenting will be Paul Ackley, a farmer from southwest Iowa who has been using cover crops on his diversified crop/livestock farm for several years. He'll discuss how he has integrated cover crops into his farm. 

In the afternoon Nebraska Extension Beef Systems Specialist Mary Drewnoski will address grazing cover crops (annual forages). She has been conducting research with cattle grazing cover crops at university and on-farm locations across the state. The day will conclude with a farmer panel of regional farmers who have been addressing soil health on their farms for several years. Farmers are using no-till, applying manure as a soil amendment, utilizing cover crops, and grazing cover crops.

The program should conclude around 3:30 p.m.

Registrations Due by Feb. 27

While the program is free, pre-registration is required by Tuesday, February 27 so we can have an accurate meal count. To register call the Nemaha County Extension office at (402) 274-4755 or go online at http://go.unl.edu/senebsoilhealth.