505 Can tillage and carbon be compatible? (Newsletter February 2023)
#RealisticRegenAg | Can tillage and carbon be compatible? That's a question that I'm going to be addressing in an upcoming workshop. If you're in Alberta, you'll be able to come to this in person event in central and southern Alberta. Stay tuned and I'll tell you about this and all the other updates in my monthly newsletter.
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References in podcast:
https://organicalberta.org/organic_agronomy/
https://farmingsmarter.com/event/farming-smarter-conference-trade-show/
https://ag-expo.ca/
https://www.plantsdigsoil.com/pricing/#paperwork
https://plantsdigsoil.thinkific.com/courses/cover-crops-prairies
https://www.plantsdigsoil.com/podcast
Transcript (auto-generated)
Can tillage and carbon be compatible? That's a question that I'm going to be addressing in an upcoming workshop. If you're in Alberta, you'll be able to come to this in person event in central and southern Alberta. Stay tuned and I'll tell you about this and all the other updates in my monthly newsletter
Hi, my name is Scott Gillespie of Plants Dig Soil, the name of the podcast and the consulting company. We're an independent agronomy company. We do not sell products. We provide advice only. We focus on #RealisticRegenAg which has to be proven and profitable. We work in person or remote or a combination of the two. Our pricing is set to be affordable to anyone from a Q&A package to full farm planning. There's no long term commitments, you can retain our services, do it yourself or hire others. Of course we always love to work with people over the long term.
So the big event that I'm talking about in this newsletter is a workshop that I'm putting together for Organic Alberta, called Strategic Tillage and soil carbon. Now, tillage and carbon are often seen as two very incompatible things. And I often see it portrayed as something where as soon as you even touch the soil, you lose your carbon. But that's not the case. Carbon is in a state of flow. And there are many new discoveries coming. And I know that even what I talk about, is going to be different in five to 10 years. But the reality is it doesn't just disappear. There are ways to make both of these tools work. And that's what we're going to work through because of course for organic farmers tillage is very important tool, but I think that even conventional farmers are going to find that they're going to need tillage to reintroduce as a tool, as weeds become resistant to herbicides, and as the public changes and through government, as things get deregistered and people take a different look on what they think of as herbicides, or what chemicals can be used. So that's what we're gonna be talking about there and that's what I'm working on.
Next, I just want to highlight a couple other events where we'll be in person or anybody in southern Alberta. There's a Farming Smarter conference and trade show. It's happening on the 15th and the 16th. And there's a great lineup of speakers both on the nitty gritty of agronomy and looking at larger trends. So, I'll have a booth there and I look forward to seeing anyone who is in my area to come and see me there.
At the end of the month, I will have a booth at Ag Expo which is in Lethbridge. From February 28 to march 2. I'm in booth 409, which is in the main hall, very close to the entrance to Heritage Hall if you're familiar with the facility, but look it up in the show guide and you'll be able to find me.
I want to highlight a new service that I'm offering called claim check. And it is in response to all of the new products that I see out there and I see a lot of questions on the app AgVisorPRO where you can find me as an expert there. But I see a lot of questions about people wanting to know what people think of new product as out. So I will evaluate the science I'll look for third party data and I'll give options for its use and alternatives on your farm.
And I just want to remind you too, that I offer the On-Farm Climate Action Fund or OFCAF to help you put together an application for nitrogen management cover crops and rotational grazing. You do need a CCA or PA on the application and I have both of those designations. The important thing is that the cost of this consulting is covered by the funding. So there's no better time to start working with an independent agronomists so please check that out as well.
Just a reminder that I have my profitable from the start cover crops for the prairies online course. It's everything is on demand. So, you can watch the videos at your time you work on the worksheets on your time, but there are office hours where you can get my help looking through your plan or any one on one help that you want. So don't forget to check that out. That's available anytime it would take you about half a day if you really push through it or I think most people do it a few hours a day through a week and can get through it. It depends on how much work you want to put into it. But everything's there. You can learn and put together your own plan for how to put cover crops onto your farm.
Thank you for listening to my newsletter for this month. I hope you enjoy the new podcast format where I have a new episode every week or so. The past few if you didn't if you didn't listen to them. I talked about a book review on The Next Great Migration. I did an agronomy podcast with soil test interpretation and I talked about regenerative agriculture news with the big one being insurance and organic matter possibly being tied together in terms of organic matter driving insurance claims, so check that out. Don't be afraid to get a hold of me if you need help on your farm with the services that I offered or the full consulting package and I will talk to you next time.