ALBANY — The Producer-Led Watershed Group, Farmers of the Sugar River, announce their second annual meeting in Albany at the Albany Lions Club Tuesday, March 5. This is an opportunity for farmers to network and learn how to best protect their soil. 

The theme for the meeting is “improving your soil to improve your bottom line.” All area producers are invited to attend. Registration starts at 10 a.m. The morning speaker will be Keith Berns who will start around 10:30 a.m. He will speak about cover crops and what he has learned from them. Berns co-owns Green Cover Seed, a cover crop provider in Nebraska. 

The hot roast beef lunch will be provided by the Albany Lions Club. After lunch, attendees will hear a brief update from the Lower Sugar River Watershed Association on the monitoring efforts they’ve conducted in the watershed. Ted Bay, a recently retired UWEX Ag Agent, will present “Save Money, Time and Soil: The Economics of No-Till” to help the audience calculate their costs of crop production. Farmers will be guided through the process of this task step by step. 

The last session to wrap up the day is a Q & A- a chance for farmers to ask other farmers questions on making no till work and how to integrate cover crops into their systems. The meeting will conclude by 3:30 p.m.

Preregistration is required. Contact Tonya Gratz at the Green County Land and Water Conservation Department at 608-325-4195 extension 121 or email Tonya.Gratz@wi.nacdnet.net by Feb. 26 for RSVPs or questions.