The Tri-State Conservation Tillage Conference
A Project of the Penn Soil RC&D Council
January 27, 2009
Radisson Hotel, West Middlesex, PA
Stay Tuned For Complete Details On This
Years Conference
The 2009 Tri-State Conservation
Tillage Conference will be held January 27, 2009 at the Radisson Hotel
in West Middlesex, Pennsylvania and will mark the 12th
Anniversary of the effort by Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio to bring
new and innovative ideas to the agricultural producers in the tri-state
area.
Franke Dijkstra, pioneer no-till
farmer and dairy producer from Ponta Grossa, Brazil will be addressing
producers and agricultural professionals as the Keynote Speaker. Mr.
Dijkstra has a 1000-cow dairy operation and manages 4000 acres of
cropland. He was one of the first farmers to use no-till in Brazil, which
has now grown to 60% (64 million acres) of planted acres. He is president
of the No-Till Federation in Brazil, and is founder and past-president of
the ABC agricultural research foundation, a farmer organization which
supports the no-till movement with research and education. He is past
president of the dairy cooperative Batavo, the first agro-cooperative in
Brazil, for 12 years. He received the Scientific Merit Award from
President Lula in 2004 for his pioneer efforts in no-tillage. Mr.
Dijkstra’s farm was awarded the Best Farm of Brazil Award in 2007 by Exame
Magazine, and the award for Best Managed Farm in Brazil in 2007 by
Agroconsult.
Other topics and speakers scheduled
are; “How and Why I use No-till, Vegetables to
Field Crops” by Steve Groff, Ag Conservation Solutions; “Switch Grass,
No-till and Bio-Fuel” by Dan Arnett, Ernst Conservation Seeds, “Camelina
as a potential Biofuel” by Joel Hunter, Penn State Cooperative Extension
and “No-till in South America and How we Stack Up” by Sjoerd Duiker, Penn
State. Other educational research based presentations will
also be presented along with sponsor displays and time to interact with
farmers who are successfully using no-till on their farms.
Please contact Wes Ramsey, Coordinator (call
(814)-226-8160 ext 5 or email
wes.ramsey@pa.usda.gov) if you would like to be added to our
mailing list, receive a registration packet, and/or are interested in
participating as a vendor or sponsor.
