In-the-field learning

The Rodale Institute's annual field day 2010 saw over 60 farmers and market gardeners gather for a day of workshops, in-field information sessions and a wagon tour of our 333-acre farm. This year's topic was Emerging Technologies in Organic Agriculture and Rodale's research team and invited speakers shared information on reducing reliance on purchased inputs, maximizing living soil cover and minimizing erosion.

Here Christine Ziegler Ulsh, research/science editor at the Institute, fields questions from the audience on applied organic no-till.

Following the morning sessions, attendees boarded wagons for field presentations of ongoing research projects at the Institute.

Steven Mirsky, research ecologist with USDA-ARS, ANRI presented finding on using no-till and reduced tillage practices to control weeds in organic soybeans.

           
Mirsky (left) and the roller/crimper used in organic no-till (right).

And David Douds, microbiologist with USDA-ARS, showed some initial results from a new experiment utilizing both increased but shallow tillage, which risks degrading the soil and beneficial biological activity, and AM fungi as a soil inoculum to re-colonize the beneficials.

After lunch, attendees hopped back on the wagons. The first stop was for a walk through our research plots comparing black plastic to cover crop mulches in vegetable production, presented by Alison Grantham, interim research director, and Sandra Wayman, seasonal research technician.

Jeff Moyer, the Institute's farm director, gave an overview of our Tree as a Crop project utilizing well-planned hedgerows as potential sources of income.

A watermelon break in the shade gave everyone an opportunity to rest, recover and network.

Rita Seidel, project manager, gave an overview of our 29-year-old Farming Systems Trial (FST) comparing organic management with conventional chemical management.

And the day wrapped up with our latest project measuring and mapping soil carbon in the field.  Elaine Viglione, soil analysis and mapping coordinator at the Institute, and Doug Archibald, agricultural analytical chemist from Penn State University showed attendees the mobile field lab being developed and how the various tools worked together to effectively measure soil carbon more quickly and inexpensively than current practices.

Viglione processing a soil sample in the field.

Archibald with the GPS unit for mapping the soil carbon data.

Even our youngest attendees left smiling!

Max Field, Rachel Saffel and Daniel Saffel (not pictured) 
came with their dad David who raises grass-fed cattle.