“Plants fix soil.”
It’s a mantra the staff of Green Cover Seed not only live by, they’re hosting a conference this Friday and Saturday to share the message with others.
Presentations will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, featuring numerous perspectives on soil health, cover crops, forages and more.
Colony native Dale Strickler is an agronomist at Green Cover Seed and an expert on cover crops. (He also reads Confucius for fun.)
Strickler said the soil health conference will be structured in such a way as to be mindful of COVID-19.
“We put the conference together basically to make people aware of our presence here,” he said. As part of the proceedings, attendees will get an inside look at Green Cover Seed’s operations in Iola. The business is located at the former site of Tramec, 29 W. Davis St.
“We hope that it’s going to be an annual event,” Strickler added, “perhaps something that happens multiple times a year.”
As for the conference’s specific content, Strickler highlighted some key questions that will guide discussion, such as:
“What does soil health mean? What makes soil function like it’s supposed to? How do you create better soil?”
He also pointed to certain long-held assumptions that would be challenged.
For instance, “we used to think you fixed soil with steel,” Strickler said, “but tillage makes it worse.”
“You fix soil with microbes,” he said. “The more microbes you have in your soil, the more productive it becomes.”
That’s why the efforts of Green Cover Seed focus on “trying to put more organic matter back in the soil.”
Strickler’s own presentation will focus on using cover crops to provide year-round grazing.
He noted that hay is expensive, and hay-making machinery is even more expensive. But since most pastures in this area aren’t high quality year-round, what other choice does one have?
