Soil Workshop This Wednesday

Remember to attend the soil health workshop Oct. 4 at 6 p.m. at the Pioneer Museum. Mark Henning and Terry Heck of NRCS—Miles City will be talking about how to manage soil and cropland/rangeland productivity during drought, with an eye towards future outlook if drought continues. The following are the main topics:

Historical perspective of drought, current conditions as it relates to forage production, mitigation: manage carbon to manage drought, grazing management with soil health, and a drought contingency plan.

This free workshop is sponsored by the Valley County Conservation District. Also come to our local working group at 5 p.m. at the Museum, where producers can discuss their resource concerns for the coming year with VCCD and NRCS. This in turn helps NRCS determine its program needs and funding allocation. LWG is convened by the local conservation district each year, and is open to the public.

Mark Henning is the Area Agronomist for the NRCS Area Office in Miles City. He works with producers in eastern Montana to improve their soil health by using tools such as cover crop mixes, crop diversity, no-till, and grazing. He views improving soil health as the foundation for helping farmers and ranchers improve their operations and overcome challenges, which means addressing core problems versus only treating symptoms. Mark is currently an instructor for the national NRCS course “Soil Health and Sustainability for Field Staff.”

Terry Heck obtained an associates degree in forest management and a bachelor of science degree in range management from North Dakota State. He has worked in Nevada, South Dakota and Montana with the Bureau of Land Management and the Natural Resource Conservation Service. With over 30 years of natural resource conservation and management experience, he is currently the Area Conservationist for Technology in the NRCS Area Office in Miles City.

For more information, call 406-228-4321 or write to [email protected].