ITHACA, N.Y. — Are you already using tarps in your farming practice? Or are you wondering if, and how, tarps could work best on your farm?
The Cornell Small Farms Program is expanding our work on tarping practices for small-scale farms. Tarping has emerged as a tool to prepare soils for planting, suppress weeds, and reduce tillage. If you are considering tarping or already tarping on your farm, we invite you to join one of our upcoming workshops on tarping for reduced tillage in Maine and New York this November.
The full-day intensive, farmer-to-farmer workshops will bring growers together to talk about how to use tarps for reduced and no-till vegetable production. We’ll discuss tillage, weeds, and how to combine tarps with soil building practices — like compost, mulches, and cover crops. You will learn from farmers as they share their successes and failures and hear research results from five years of tarping trials testing no-till practices side-by-side with conventional management. Join us to share your own methods and walk away with a plan to use tarps with less tillage on your farm.
We are offering this workshop at four different locations this November. Choose the site that works for you and register now, as space is limited. Cost to participate is $35 per person with lunch and refreshments provided.
Scholarships are available for active duty U.S. armed forces or military veterans in NY, covering up to $100 for travel and registration with support from the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets. To apply, contact Dean Koyanagi at drk5@cornell.edu.
For questions on registration and workshops, contact Ryan Maher at rmm325@cornell.edu.
Workshop Dates and Locations:
Saturday, November 2, in Northport, ME
This event is a pre-conference workshop hosted at the MOFGA Farmer to Farmer Conference, and will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Point Lookout Resort and Conference Center. Register now on the F2F Conference website: https://www.mofga.org/MOFGA-Events/farmer-to-farmer-conference-2019
Monday, November 4, in Springvale, ME
This workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension in York County. Register now: https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/projects/reduced-tillage/tarping-for-reduced-tillage-workshop-registration-springvale-me/
Monday, November 18, in Canandaigua, NY
This workshop will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Ontario County. Register now: https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/projects/reduced-tillage/tarping-for-reduced-tillage-workshop-registration-canandaigua-ny/
Tuesday, November 19, in Voorheesville, NY
This workshop will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Albany County. Register now: https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/projects/reduced-tillage/tarping-for-reduced-tillage-workshop-registration-voorheesville-ny/
The Reduced Tillage project of the Cornell Small Farms Program supports vegetable farmers in adopting scale-appropriate reduced tillage (RT) practices that can lead to healthy, productive soils and greater profitability. This project uses system-based field research and on-farm trials to evaluate novel tools and methods and help farmers learn about the RT approaches that can work for their farm. This work is accomplished in collaboration with Cornell Cooperative Extension and the University of Maine with support from Northeast SARE.
–Cornell Small Farms Program