Summer Field Days to Feature Reduced Tillage Project’s Tarping Research
Join the Cornell Small Farms Program staff for an Organic@Cornell field tour at the Thompson Vegetable Research Farm on July 31 in Freeville, NY, to talk about using tarps to suppress weeds with less tillage. We’ll be sharing results alongside other Cornell and CCE educators in partnership with NOFA–NY. At the “Innovations in Organic Vegetable Production” field day, you’ll tour the fields and learn about soil health, perennial cover crops, hemp production, variety trials, and vegetable breeding for organic production. Find more information on the NOFA-NY website.
We’ll also be at the Empire Farm Days Soil Health Center on August 8 in Seneca Falls, NY, sharing the latest research on strip tillage and cover cropping practices. We’ve been working on adapting these systems for organic crops while avoiding the pitfalls with weeds and residue. Come to talk cover crop mixes and tillage tools and hear lessons learned. Check out the full schedule, including the soil health and cover crop demonstrations on the Empire Farm Days website.
We’re also happy to announce that we have recently received a NE SARE Research and Education Grant to support small-scale vegetable farms in adopting tarps to reduce tillage. Collaborating with the University of Maine, we’ll continue our research in permanent bed systems, combing tarps with other soil building practices, to learn how tarps change soils, weeds, and crop yields. Stay tuned for a schedule of intensive farmer-farmer workshops this winter, where you can share your own tarping practices and learn from the experience of others transitioning to reduced and no-till systems on their farm. You can see our project overview online.
To learn more about our research and events, visit the Reduced Tillage project page or contact Ryan Maher at rmm325@cornell.edu with questions.
