With the weather in Western NY being slightly less than pleasant in recent weeks, the chance to sit down, take a load off, and learn something new is upon us and USDA Natural Resource Conservation Services Conservation Webinars series is a great place to do just that.
2016 offered a wide variety of webinars, but the following offer soil health specific content. If you’re interested in learning the basics of soil health check out The New Division of Soil Health: Approach and Benefits, Biological Indicators of Soil Health: What they are, how they are measured, and what is on the horizon?, and Soil Erosion: A Historical Perspective.
There’s plenty to learn through these webinars about grazing in general, but Integrating Grazing into Cropping Systems, and Grazing Management on CRP Acres to Improve Soil Health will give you a soil health POV.
Other soil health related topics include Farming Implements in Action: Impacts on the Soil, Erosion Potential of Tillage Systems, and Economics, Managing Soil Quality in Forests, Soil Health Impacts on Pest Management, and Soil Health in High Tunnel Production.
Recordings of all 2016 Conservation webinars are available here and can be viewed at any time.
Upcoming webinars for 2017 are full of promise. There are two webinars scheduled that will feature first hand view and commentary from farmers including Soil Health Economics - A Farmer's Perspective, and Managing Cover Crops in an Arid Region: A Farmer's Perspective.
The basics of soil microbes will be covered in Soil Microbes Every Agronomist Should Know, and grazing for soil health will be discussed in Using Adaptive Grazing to Improve Soil Health in Grazing Ecosystems.
Soil Health impacts on resource concerns, specifically water quality, will be covered in Movement of Nutrients through Soils: Impacts of Land Management (or lack of) on Water Quality, and various operation specific discussions and their relationship to soil health will be covered in Soil Health Challenges of High Disturbance Crops, Improving Soil health in Irrigated Intensive Vegetable Production, and Improving Soil Health on Confinement-based Dairies.
New live presentations will be available throughout 2017. Click here to see a full list of offered webinars and their scheduled dates and times. Recordings of each webinar become available within a few weeks of the live presentation if you are unable to attend day of.