For decades, farmers who have embraced conservation production have seen increased soil health, reduced irrigation demands and lowered economic risk. For the past 17 years, Georgia farmers interested in adopting new conservation practices for their farms – including those looking to swap best practices with other conservation tillers – have gathered at Georgia’s annual Conservation Production Systems Training Conference.

Registration is now open for the 2017 conference, which is being held at South Georgia State College in Douglas, Georgia, from Tuesday, Jan. 31, to Wednesday, Feb.1.

The conference brings farmers, researchers and University of Georgia Cooperative Extension experts together to discuss the implementation of conservation production practices. This year’s speakers will discuss issues like cover crop establishment, cultivation in cover crop residue, fertility management, cover crop mixes, use of cover crops in grazing systems and the economics of conservation production.

In addition to seminars, a field day will be held at a nearby farm to demonstrate new equipment and attachments for conservation tillage as well as adjustments to equipment to enable planting in heavy residue.

Many farmers hold a long-standing commitment to improving the land for the next generation. Production practices such as reducing tillage and using cover crops within a crop rotation can help farmers improve economic returns and properly steward row cropland.

For more information on the conference, contact Eugene Dyal or Brenda Hallman at the Seven Rivers Resource Conservation and Development Council at sevenrivers@bellsouth.net or by calling 912-337-8574.

To register, call the UGA Tifton Campus Conference Center at 229-386-3416 or visit ugatiftonconference.caes.uga.edu. Registration for the two-day conference is $25.