Webinars Offered to Wheat Growers

A web-based grower education seminar (webinar) on healthy soils, sponsored by the Idaho, Oregon and Washington Wheat Commissions will held Tuesday, March 13 at 8 a.m. MST, 7 a.m. PST.

Ray Archuleta, a conservation agronomist with the Natural Resource Conservation Service, will address how healthy soils save money. The webinar will be approximately one hour. Participation is simple and free! Log onto the website at http://connect.cals.uidaho.edu/wheat (requires Adobe Flash Player which is installed on most computers) and enter your name as a participant.

Archuleta believes that farming for the 21st century requires producers to follow nature’s template and that doing so will allow soils on the ranch or farm to function better. Healthy functioning soils managed as an ecosystem filtrate water and cycle nutrients and organic material more efficiently. This webinar will teach principles on how to improve soil function so landowners can save money on petroleum based inputs.

On Thursday, March 15, 7:30 a.m. MST, 6:30 a.m. PST, Juliet Marshall, Associate Professor of Agronomy and Cereals Cropping Systems at the University of Idaho, Department of Plant, Soils and Entomological Sciences will address falling numbers, specifically looking at questions around the 2011 crop. .

Wheat quality last harvest was called into question with some varieties showing low values in the falling numbers test. In this webinar, Marshall will explore the potential causes and the methods producers may be able to use to reduce the discounts associated with the expression of low falling numbers.