Polk Soil and water conservation district

Biology for Soil Health Workshop

Co-Organized by Polk County Soil and Water Conservation District & Midwest Soil Restore

Location:

Middleswart Lodge at Annett Nature Center 

15875 118th Ave. Indianola, IA, 50125

Tour Location:

Midwest Soil Restore

7362 55th Lane. Prole, IA 50229

 

Wednesday July 10th, 2024

9:30am – 3:00pm

 

Lunch Provided – Please RSVP

What to Expect

  • Learn the importance of soil biology

  • How to increase the biology on your farm

  • How to incorporate regenerative ag strategies

  • Value of compost and soil amendments

  • Integrating cover crops for soil health

  • Workshop on building your own Johnson Su composter

Biographies 

Andrew Thomason

Andrew Thomason is the Iowa NRCS coordinator for urban, small-scale and minority farm producers.  His role is to link farmers with educational, technical, and monetary resources within the NRCS.  Andrew has worked since 2020 as a Public Affairs Specialist in South Dakota before transferring to Iowa in 2024.  He believes that the mission of the NRCS agency is valuable to all farmers.  His goal is to ‘make a difference’ for producers across the State.  

Jared Flater

Dr. Jared Flater is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University. He earned his PhD in Environmental Science at Iowa State, where he studied how prairie plants can help prevent the spread of harmful bacteria from manure on farms. His work during his PhD and his master’s in agriculture and Biosystems Engineering, also at Iowa State, centered on understanding how different farming practices affect soil health, mainly focusing on natural ways to improve soil through the use of organic materials like compost.

Zach Wright

Zach is the Director of the Living Soil Compost Lab in Sioux Falls South Dakota, which specializes in biological soil and compost assessment, humus testing, as well as most other traditional metrics to evaluate system function and productivity. In addition to lab services, Zach has consulted across the United States as well as several international countries. Primarily you will find Zach working across the Great Plains between the Mississippi River and the Rockies with production row cropping systems as well as pasture/range-land. Part of what Zach does is help farmers initiate their transition into a more autonomous growing system with an overarching goal of profitability. 

Davis Behle

Davis has been on the Green Cover sales team for four years and also takes the lead on planting and maintaining Green Cover test plots. Davis will talk about the benefits of cover crops on soil biology and health.

Regenerative Farmer Panel

This is a four-person panel consisting of Levi Lyle, Roger Elmore, Caleb Akin, and Dennis McLaughlin. There will be a discussion about making smart choices to make farms more regenerative, and how to make the soil work for you.

Bonus! Johnson-Su Bioreactor Workshop

Join Steve Shivvers from Midwest Soil Restore at 7362 55th Lane Prole, IA 50229 for a “How To” build and make your own Johnson Su compost box at home and start composting in a simple and fairly easy way.

Sponsors

  • Midwest Soil Restore 
  • CORE BioAg 
  • HUMA
  • Midwestern BioAg
  • Green Cover
  • Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance

The goal of Polk SWCD is to protect water quality and conserve soil resources in Iowa.

To provide leadership that helps people improve, conserve, and sustain our natural resources while educating them on the importance and practicality of maintaining our environment and quality of life.

Office Hours
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