An Oct. 6 southeast Nebraska field day tour will focus on building soil nutrients, reducing weeds, and improving soil profitability.  

The tour, which begins with registration and lunch at 12:30 p.m., is sponsored by an NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant, a SARE Farmer/Rancher Grant, the Nebraska Environmental Trust, Nebraska Extension and Stock Seed Farms.

First stop is the Mike McDonald farm at 836 C Road in Palmyra. Participants will have an opportunity to see various cover crop species and learn about their advantages and disadvantages.  This tour will be led by Ray Ward of Ward Laboratories and Zach Riggs of Soil Solutions.  

The second stop will be at a field near Douglas (8th and M Road), where participants can view the impacts of using compost (from Prairieland Dairy), see a soil pit, and discuss soil biology changes after 3 years of cover crops.  There also will be discussion of the impact of cover crops on weeds and stacked crop rotations in corn.

The final tour stop will be at Prairieland Dairy (13000 Pella Rd. in Firth).  There tour participants will view:

• A soil pit and discuss soil physical properties
• Effects of various cover crop seeding methods
• A rainfall simulator demonstration
• Fall-planted cover crops planted after corn silage
• Tiling and water quality from the field and discuss soil health

Dinner will be served following the tour at 5 p.m. with Prairieland Dairy ice cream. An additional soil health discussion will be led by Ward and Riggs.

 Please RSVP by Oct. 2 so dinner arrangements can be made. To RSVP contact Audra Goodin at 402-472-6486 or audra.goodin@unl.edu. Meals can’t be guaranteed for those who register after Oct. 2.