Women Invited to Free Soil Health Conservation Meeting
Women who own or manage farmland in Cerro Gordo and surrounding counties are invited to participate in a free conservation discussion focused on soil health on Thursday, April 14 at the Ventura Library meeting room, 7 Ventura St., Ventura. The program, sponsored by Women, Food and Agriculture Network and the Cerro Gordo County ISU Extension and Outreach office, is called Women Caring for the LandSM.
The morning will start with registration, coffee and resource sharing at 8:30 a.m., and the meeting will begin promptly at 9 a.m. Lunch will be provided. During an afternoon field tour, participants will travel to a nearby farm to watch a demonstration of soil testing. The tests will measure for soil structure and stability and infiltration. Participants will walk a short distance into a field, so please wear or bring appropriate clothing and footwear. The meeting will end with dessert and wrap-up at the Library by 3 p.m.
Maintaining healthy soil is the key to productivity and environmental health for our farmland. Women landowners who attend this meeting will learn to assess and improve the health of their soils through the use of cover crops and other conservation practices.
Nearly a half of the farmland in Iowa is currently owned or co-owned by women. Women Caring for the LandSM offers a peer-to-peer, informal discussion format to allow women landowners to talk about their individual farm management goals, facilitated by women conservationists. This response from one recent attendee is typical of our landowners’ experiences: “This has given me some understanding of what my husband talks about. I came to this meeting with no understanding – I am excited about the projects possible to protect the soil and feel this meeting has helped me in beginning to learn about farming.”
RSVP to Joann or Becky at the Extension office, bartus@iastate.edu, 641-423-0844. For more information about this program, visit www.womencaringfortheland.org or call Carol at 641-430-2540.
This meeting is made possible with funding from a Conservation Innovation Grant from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Women, Food and Agriculture Network is a non-profit, educational organization formed in 1997 to provide networking, information and leadership development opportunities to women involved in all aspects of sustainable agriculture. Learn more at www.wfan.org or by calling 515-460-2477.