16th Annual Diversity, Direction & Dollars

Diversity, Directions and Dollars 2012, an agricultural forum, will be presented on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at the Ramada Inn Grand Dakota Lodge, Dickinson. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. MT followed by a welcome given by Haylie Schipp, Northern Ag Networking at 9 a.m.

This program will feature internationally-known speakers on topics affecting agriculture in the western Dakotas and eastern Montana. It will provide producers with ideas for improving productivity and decreasing costs while providing high quality food produced in a suitable manner.

Hal Weiser, NRCS soil specialist, will talk about “Soil Health – The Importance of Organic Matter”. To complement this discussion, Ty Eisenbraun, Southwest North Dakota Soil Health Demonstration project manager, will share observations from the project located near Manning. The demonstration project started in 2008.

The yields of our small grain crops were influenced by many factors during the growing season. Roger Ashley, Dickinson Research Extension Center agronomist, will discuss “What Happened in 2011? Avoid Repeating Mistakes in 2012”.

Dave Hynek, Mountrail County Commissioner/ag producer, will discuss “The Impact of Oil”. He will share experiences as both an ag producer and county commissioner on how oil has affected the Stanley area.

Virg Robinson, Pioneer Hi-Bred market analysis manager, will discuss “Market to Market”. Robinson is in his 35th year of appearing on the Iowa Prairie Public Television Market to Market program as a market analyst.

Consumers are asking more questions these days about where their food comes from and how it is raised, and they don’t always get their information from credible sources. Troy and Stacy Hadrick, Advocates for Agriculture, will discuss, “Discovering Your Influential Power”. In this presentation, the Hadricks, Faulkton, SD, will share what it means to be an influential person.

Sarah Singla, agricultural engineer, Aveyron, France, will talk about “A New Way of Farming—Teaming With Nature”. Singla took over her grandfather’s farm that has been direct-seeded since 1980.

Producers should come away with at least two good ideas they can apply to their farm during the next cropping season and at least one good idea to position their farming operation to take advantage of the changes occurring.

A registration fee of $15 covers all breaks, noon lunch and materials and is payable at the door.

 

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