A “Maximizing Soil Health!” workshop with internationally known expert and speaker Ray Archuleta will be held from 6-9 p.m. on Wednesday, March 28 at Riverland Community College’s west campus garage [2000 Eighth Avenue Northwest]  in Austin

This workshop is for farmers interested in how soil-building methods like cover cropping, reduced tillage, and livestock integration can boost the health and resiliency of our farms.

After 30 years as a USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service soil conservationist, conservation agronomist and water quality specialist in New Mexico, Missouri, Oregon and North Carolina, Archuleta retired in 2017 and founded Soil Health Consultants and the Soil Health Academy. Archuleta addresses concerns about weather extremes and growing financial pressures and how we can use the principles of soil health to take part in the soil health revolution now emerging in the agricultural community.

“We’re going to hit a tipping point where we’ll see a massive following in soil health,” Archuleta told Successful Farming magazine in November. “Between the mass education going on…the success that some farmers and ranchers are having, and the always-increasing price of inputs, there’s going to be a fundamental shift. People want to see something different. They see something is intrinsically wrong. Why do we put in so many resources and, yet, a son or daughter can’t come into the operation?”

This workshop is co-sponsored by the Land Stewardship Project and the Mower County Soil and Water Conservation District.

Sign-in and a light supper begins at 5:15 p.m. (no fee). To register, call the Land Stewardship Project’s Sarah Fillius at 507-523-3366, or Mower County’s Soil and Water Conservation District office at 507-434-2603, ext. 5.

See www.landstewardshipproject.org/lspsoilbuilders for details.