I recently returned from my yearly Acres USA conference which was held again in Madison, Wisconsin. This year, the trip to the conference was quite the experience with three flight delays in Buffalo and one deplaning in Chicago due to an engine repair which took an hour and a half. My arrival was to be around 1:30 pm ended up my getting there around 9:00 pm. Luckily that was my only bad experience with the conference being stimulating, uplifting and full of lively conversations with attendees and conference speakers.
The theme was around Regenerative Farming practices with the talks consisting of topics around soil health including making the most of the microbiome in the soil, the use of cover cropping in preserving the carbon in the soil, composting to replenish and feed the microbes, livestock management and much more. I think an equal learning experience comes from the conversation that takes place in the trade show or during the social hours. I always come away from those meetings with new ideas and uplifting optimism for the farm in the upcoming new year.
My opinion is that if you aren’t always trying to improve your knowledge of what is going on in your occupation, then you most likely will be passed by due to the new awareness of how the soil and the plants and the animals are all interrelated depending on on each other for their existence.