Wednesday, January 17

8:30 AM  Invocation and Welcome Address

9:00 AM  Opening Keynote, “Why are you here? Why Soil Health?”
Jeremy Brown, Texas Cotton Farmer
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11:00 AM  Soil Testing – Not Just Chemistry
Fred Vocasek, Senior Lab Agronomist, ServiTech Laboratories
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Help to understand how soil testing fits into overall nutrient utilization and management. Use your “chemical” soil test results and history to help diagnose aspects of soil health, including biological and physical functions.

11:00 AM  Grazing for Soil Health
Joshua Gaskamp, Consultation Manager Noble Research Institute
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Using the power of nature and regenerative management, farmers and ranchers can repair grazing lands and their profitability. This session is for anyone who wants to improve the health of their soil, grazing lands, and people.

1:30 PM  Custom Grazing Panel
Kevin Wiltse, Wiltse Family Farms, LLC
Matthew Bain, Southern High Plains Grassland Project Manager, The Nature Conservancy
Mark Lohrding, Lohrding 3-Bar Ranch
Scott Johnson, Flying Diamond Ranch
Caleb Chapman, Ranching Manager, Chapman Livestock

What is regenerative grazing? This session will highlight the regenerative practices used by the panelists in the arid high plains. Topics including the foundations of soil heath—maintaining the solar panel, rest, and historic ecological processes will be discussed. Panelists will also address where soil organic matter comes from in rangelands, as well as drought resilience practices such as increasing water infiltration and plant community diversity.

1:30 PM Can Regenerative Agriculture Work in a Dry Climate?
Jeremy Brown, Texas Cotton Farmer
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Explore the intricacies of regenerative agriculture in arid landscapes. Learn the vital role of timing in optimizing water use and discover the necessity of always having a robust plan B for sustainable farming practices in challenging environments.

2:30 PM   Cover Crop Mixology – How and Why To Design A Cover Crop Mix
Keith Berns, Co-founder of Green Cover
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Diversity is one of the most powerful and prevalent characteristics of natural plant ecosystems but is largely absent in our farming systems today. This session will explore why diversity is so important for your cover crop choices and how to select and build the best diverse mix for your operation.

2:30 PM  Water Panel: Conserving Every Last Drop
Wes McCary, Tech Projects Coordinator – Kansas Water Office
Katie Durham, Manager at Western Kansas Groundwater Management District No. 1
Ryan Brady, Farmer/rancher
Pat Janssen, Self-employed Ag Producer
Dwane Roth, Front Porch Farms
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This panel will discuss how farms utilize cover crops on dryland and irrigate acres to create more resilient soil. In addition, we will discuss how Low Energy Precision Application systems and simple farming practices have helped maximize water use.

3:30 PM  Soil Health U Awards Presentation and Social

Thursday, January 18

8:00 AM  General Session – Farmer Panel
Vance Mccoy, Owner of Triple Creek Cover Crops
Jami Richardson, Co-owner, Farmin’ Arb Enterprises
Justin Dvorak, 5th Generation Farmer
Brad Haynes, Haynes Farms/FHSU Athletics
Matt Splitter, Owner, Splitter Farms

9:00 AM  Establishing Soil Health with the Right Equipment; A Farmer’s Perspective 
Matt Splitter, Owner, Splitter Farms
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In his first eight years of farming, Matt Splitter took his fleet of equipment from full tillage to complete No-Till. In this session, Splitter will walk through the steps of changing his equipment fleet to establish soil health practices.

9:00 AM   Using Cover Crops as an IPM Tool for Managing Hard-to-Control Weeds in No-Till Cropping Systems
Chris Proctor, Weed Management Extension Educator
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Cover crops have the potential to provide several beneficial roles in diverse cropping systems. Like many other cover crop benefits, as an IPM tool for managing hard-to-control weeds, increasing cover crop biomass is closely associated with improved weed suppression. Considerations for effectively integrating cover crops into agronomic cropping systems will be discussed as well as some of the challenges to success.

11:00 AM  General Session – Regenerating Your Profits
Macauley Kincaid, Regenerative Farmer
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Are you interested in being more productive and profitable with your cash crops and livestock? Take a look at this session. I will be discussing how I use a soil health approach to profitability with Covers, Crops, and Cattle.

12:00 PM Lunch and Closing Keynote – Measuring and Evaluating Soil Health
Cristine Morgan, Chief Scientific Officer, The Soil Health Institute
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