Jeff Mitchell

At the turn of the century, strip-tillage and no-tillage were used on less than 1% of California’s annual crop land. Tillage practices in the state had in fact, changed very little for the prior 90 years.

Since that time however, a variety of motivations have now led to major reductions in overall tillage disturbance in several cropping sectors, as well as increased in the use of several variations on the strip-tillage theme in vegetables, but particularly in silage corn production, and more recently, at organic farms.

Working with the Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation (CASI) Center, Jeff Mitchell, cropping extension specialist with the University of California-Davis, has been active in leading the evolution of new, reduced-disturbance systems with many farmer and private sector partners.

During a general session at the 2019 National Strip-Tillage Conference, Aug. 1-2 in Peoria, Ill., Mitchell will provide up-to-date advances in the use of strip-till in California, and share concrete examples of how farmers in the Golden State are taking to realize effective strip-till systems.

During a post-conference soil health workshop, “Seeing is Believing: A Visual Validation of Soil Health,” conference attendees will join former USDA soil scientist and founder of Wetland and Soil Consulting Services, Frank Gibbs, in at a nearby farm for a unique and eye-opening demonstration of soil health. Gibbs will conduct his famous “smoking tile” experiment which provides a visual analysis of soil structure, quality and earthworm activity. This workshop costs an additional $99 to attend. Attendees may sign up online or by calling (866) 839-8455 or (262) 432-0388.

The 6th annual National Strip-Tillage Conference will be held at the Embassy Suites by Hilton East Peoria Riverfront Hotel & Conference Center and feature 2 days of strip-till education through an array of thought-provoking general sessions, strategy-packed strip-till classrooms and highly collaborative strip-till roundtable discussions.

A $25.00 Early Bird Registration discount is available through May 31, and attendees who register their farm and family members receive additional savings. For more information and to register for the conference, visit www.StripTillFarmer.com/NSTC.

Title sponsors making the learning and networking opportunities possible for strip-tillers include AgroLiquid, Copperhead Ag, Dawn Equipment Co., Environmental Tillage Systems, Ingersoll, Kuhn Krause, Montag Mfg., Orthman Mfg., Schlagel Mfg., Topcon Agriculture, Vulcan Equipment and Yetter Mfg. Co. All 12 companies will exhibit during the 2-day educational event.

We’ll see you in Peoria!