Workshops & Keynotes

Shovels, Eyeball, and a 6-inch Ring
Utilizing the Power of Observation to Determine the Health of Your Soil

with Tony Richards

Time and Location TBD

Come learn how the power of observation and some simple in-field tests can tell you how healthy your soil is as well as identify resource concerns that might be impacting the productivity of your soil. Additionally, they will be using a rainfall simulator to demonstrate how the principles of soil health impact its ability to be resilient to extreme weather conditions.

It's the Soil That Brings Us Together: Principles, Practices, and Context - The Principle of Knowing Your Context

with Tony Richards

Time and Location TBD

Understanding the nature of soils and how we are a part of the ecosystem. Using Nature as the key to soil health and understanding the principles behind healthy soils and how your context is the lens through which you must view this world. 

Mother Nature, Such a Modest Dresser - The Principles of Soil Cover and Disturbance

with Tony Richards

Time and Location TBD

A deep dive into the principles of keeping the soil covered, and minimizing disturbance. We will discuss the importance soil cover plays in soil health, and how to improve soil cover through practices such as cover crops and understand carbon-to-nitrogen ratios as part of maintaining lasting cover. Understanding what is a disturbance (it's not just tillage) and how to minimize and mitigate its impacts, planning for a transition to minimize disturbance system, tips, and tricks to going to no-till. Chemical disturbances and how to wean yourself off them. 

IT'S ALIVE: The Soil is an Ecosystem! - The Principles of Maximizing Biodiversity and Keeping Living Roots

with Tony Richards

Time and Location TBD

Learn how the soil is a living breathing ecosystem teaming with life and how complex the interaction of all living things in the soil serves a purpose. Learn about the carbon cycle and living plants are key to the flow of energy into the soils. 

A Farmer, a Cow, and a Protozoa Walk Into a Bar: Livestock a Key to Soil Health - The Principle of Integrating livestock

with Tony Richards

Time and Location TBD

So a Farmer and Cow and a Protozoa walk into a bar and the Bartender says ...... The integration of livestock as a key principle of soil health, including the cycling of nutrients, and effects on soil biology and the carbon cycle.  Learn why livestock is a critical component of a healthy soil ecosystem and how integrating them is not as simple as it sounds.