January 18, 2002

Sustainable Agriculture Conference Set for Jan. 31 to Feb. 1 in Mandan

Educational sessions on marketing, weed control, entrepreneurship, livestock production, new organic regulations for crops and livestock and other topics will be featured during the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society’s Annual Winter Conference Thursday, Jan. 31 and Friday, Feb. 1 in Mandan.

Keynote speaker for the event is Joel Salatin, a widely known speaker and author on pasture-based livestock systems. The conference is also sponsored by the North Dakota State University Extension Service. Registration opens at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 31. Salatin’s address is at 7:30 p.m. The conference continues from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday.

NDSU specialists scheduled to speak at the meeting include:

• agricultural engineer Dennis Wiesenborn on processing organically grown oilseeds and emerging opportunities with edible flaxseed.
• agronomists Pat Carr and Steve Zwinger on trials of wheat and oat varieties for organic farms. Zwinger will also talk about opportunities with alternative and specialty grains.
• weed specialists George Kegode and Brian Jenks on sustainable perennial weed control.
• agricultural diversification specialist Rudy Radke on using marketing networks and alliances
• rangeland specialist Kevin Sedivec, NDSU sustainable agriculture coordinator Tom Hanson, and Sheridan County extension agent Kent Alderin on multi-species grazing and pasture weed control.

Other speakers include university and USDA specialists, producers and experts from private industry.

For more information on the conference go to www.npsas.org or call the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society office at (701) 883-4304.

###

Source: Brad Brummond, (701) 284-6248, bbrummon@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu