The David Brandt Farm will host our field day on April 8 (Friday), featuring soil health. The location is: 6100 Basil Western Rd, Carroll, OH 43112.  Dave has lined up an outstanding program with Ray Archuleta and Rick Clark.

Seating is limited and pre-registration ($75) is REQUIRED. Contact by email or phone: ann.brandt@walnutcreekseeds.com or 330-475-6352.

George Derringer will take 3-foot soil cores from the Brandt farm fields and compare the soil profiles to 6 preserved soil cores from 15 years ago. Have regenerative ag practices changed those soils? Could these same changes occur on your farm?

The program will start at 8:30 a.m. with Ray Archuleta discussing “How to Start Regenerative Ag and Improve Soil Health”. This will include demonstrations of the Slake Test and 2 others that show how good soils, without tillage, have substantial macropores and resist breaking up.

Ray Archuleta retired from NRCS as a Soil Health Specialist. He is a world-renowned soil scientist and has many presentations on YouTube. He starts with the basics, “Plants need two things: sun and water. The water has to infiltrate. It should infiltrate where it lands to be of value and not run off. Cover crops are essential to capture sunlight more than just the 4 months the cash crop is growing.  They help feed the microbes, increase infiltration, and resist drought effects.”

Next will be a panel on Regenerative Ag, with Rick Clark and Dave Brandt. Rick Clark has 7000 acres for crops and livestock in Indiana which he is switching to organic production. All with no-till and cover crops. Rick will share his economic information, including a drastic cost reduction for inputs.

Kirk Hines, ODA SWCD Chief, will give an update on the H2Ohio Program.

The Lunch has a special “flavor.” Every item on the plate will be locally produced. Coffee will be locally roasted. (And drinking water will come from a well on the Brandt Farm!)

Near the end of lunch, Rafiq Islam, OSU Soil Scientist, and Dave Brandt will discuss analysis of nutrient density of different crops from the Brandt farm.

After lunch, weather permitting, the group will be split into thirds and go to the field. For 30 minutes each, we’ll learn from:

George Derringer, retired NRCS Soil Scientist, will discuss the soil cores mentioned above.

Vinayak Shedekar, OSU Ag. Engineer, will give an update of water quality research being conducted on the Brandt Farm.

Brian Stephenson, Regional Manager for North Star Seed, will discuss results from the plots for Hybrid Rye and Triticale on the Brandt Farm.

The day will end about 3:30 p.m. with a Wrap-up back at the building. We hope to have a high-level guest speaker from USDA.