'Don't Farm Naked' workshop set for next week

“Don’t Farm Naked,” a workshop about residue management and U.S. Department of Agriculture programs, is set for Tuesday at the Northern Ag Research Center meeting room from 1 to 3 p.m.

This workshop will cover ways to manage residue, reduce erosion and review requirements of the 1985 Farm Bill.

“This workshop is just a general overview of residue management and USDA farm programs,” USDA Havre Field Office Natural Resources Conservation Service Soil Conservationist Laurie Massar said. 

She said the workshop will focus specifically on sodbusting, which is breaking ground in grass that does not have a cropping history.

It all started with was the Food Security Act of 1985, in which Congress linked USDA farm payments with erosion.

She added that back in 1985, any farmer that raised a commodity crop which received USDA benefits needed to have a conservation plan.

“So the older farmers are really familiar with it, but that was a long time ago and so in the late ’80s, early ’90s, like every farmer all across the nation, we worked with them to develop conservation plans,” Massar said. “Since then, a lot of them have retired or moved on, so now we have a new generation of younger farmers, who, some of them, weren’t even born in 1985, so they aren’t familiar with the Food Security Act.”

She said the Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Services is holding the workshop to inform farmers, ranchers, producers and the community of what all of the 1985 Farm Bill entails.

The program started because a lot of wind erosion occurred back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, she added.

“We wanted to go over with the newer producers different ways to manage your residue, what their options were,” she said “We have an increase in organic farming in Hill and Blaine counties, and traditionally, they use a lot of tillage, and so we wanted to work with them.” 

Some producers have to deal with chemical-resistant weeds, and they have resorted to doing tillage on large block fields, she said, adding that can result in blowing soils.

“We want to visit with them and let them know what their option are, some management tools that they can decide what they want to do on their farms to minimize erosion,” she said.

The workshop is free and open to the community.

For more information, people can contact Massar at 406-879-3349.