OFRF, in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), has co-created a webinar series focused on soil health and organic farming. This series is facilitated by Jennifer Ryan and Lindsay Haines of NRCS and Thelma Velez and Mary Hathaway of OFRF. Each of the webinars is led by Mark Schonbeck, OFRF’s Research Associate. Topics covered in this series include soil health, nutrient management, weed management, cover crops, plant genetics, water management, conservation tillage, and climate resilience. Each webinar shares organic farming practices and research findings, and many share stories of farmer experiences in organic farming as they pertain to the topic of the specific webinar in the series.
The USDA has made all the recordings available for free, you can find them here.
Webinar 1: Why “Organic” Matters – Soil Organic Matter, Soil Health and USDA-Certified Organic Farming
Soil is a living system that cycles nutrients and supplies crops with essential nutrients. Organic farmers must focus on building soil organic matter (SOM), returning crop residues to the soil, and using fertilizers of organic origin. After a brief history of organic farming, this webinar focuses on soil organic matter: the nature of soil organic matter, its relationship to organic farming practices, its functions, and practices to build it in agricultural soils. The webinar concludes with the story of Rick and Janice Felker of Mattawoman Creek Farmers in Virginia, and the organic practices they used to SOM and fertility in their sandy soils.
Webinar 2: Soil Life in Organic Farming: The Role of Soil Organisms in Soil Health and Resource Conservation
Although soil life makes up just a small portion of the soil mass, it performs all of the major functions in a healthy soil. Organic farmers understand this point and capitalize on it by feeding their soil to feed their crops. After a brief introduction to the community of life within the soil, this webinar delves into how soil organisms function in crop production, and provides an overview of organic farming for soil biology and its challenges, opportunities, and recent research findings, as well as some guidelines for optimizing practices and outcomes.
Webinar 3: Biological Nutrient Management: Best Organic Practices for Soil Fertility and Resource Stewardship
Nutrient management focuses on production, soil health, and conservation. According to the NRCS, nutrient management criteria is based on the “4Rs of nutrient stewardship”: right source, right rate, right time, right place. After a brief summary of the changes throughout history in organic nutrient management, this webinar focuses on the challenges and opportunities in organic nutrient management, through the use of the 4Rs and offers examples from current research. The webinar ends with a summary of organic nutrient management tips.
Webinar 4: Beating the Weeds Without Herbicides: Soil-Friendly Organic Weed Management
According to the 2022 National Organic Research Agenda report, weeds are the #1 challenge to organic farmers. After defining weeds, this webinar focuses on two tactics in managing weeds: prevention and control. First, five preventive steps for organic producers are presented, each complete with example practices. These steps are followed by a discussion of organic integrated weed management control practices, focusing on practices to increase weed control while decreasing damage to the soil, and sharing farmer innovations and research findings. The webinar concludes with a practical summary of weed prevention and control practices.
Webinar 5: Cover Cropping for Soil Health and Fertility in Organic Production
Cover crops play a multi-functional role in organic farming, as they contribute to all five principles of soil health. This webinar focuses on the challenges and strategies of using cover crops: selecting the best cover crop for a farmer’s objectives, rotation niche, and soil challenges; timely establishment and termination of cover crops, termination without herbicides, and optimizing nitrogen release from the crop; and region-specific challenges and strategies. The webinar concludes with four farmer stories of using cover crops in context.
Webinar 6: The Role of Plant Genetics in Soil Health: Selecting Crop Cultivars for Organic Production
According to the 2022 National Organic Research Agenda report, farmers find it difficult to find appropriate crop varieties and seeds for organic production. Breeding priorities for the organic farming sector include disease and pest resistance, overall vigor, and resilience to drought and other climate related challenges. This webinar discusses the challenges for obtaining seeds and cultivars for organic systems and ways to address these challenges; and organic plant breeding research in vegetable crops, grains, and cover crops.
Webinar 7: Organic Soil Health Practices for Water Management and Water Quality
Can organic soil health practices buffer the farm against drought and deluge? After a brief overview of soil moisture and the effects of inherent and dynamic soil properties on plant available water, this webinar discusses the impacts of climate change on soil health and farm water supply, ways to manage water quantity and quality in organic farming systems, the use of cover crops and soil water in challenging climates, and some irrigation challenges in organic production.
Webinar 8: Practical Conservation Tillage for Organic Cropping Systems
Although intense tillage may be costly to a farmer’s soil health, there are methods and tools organic farmers can use when tilling to maintain or improve their soil health. This webinar discusses tools to reduce tillage intensity in organic systems, the organic rotational no-till systems and its four steps, and soil disturbance. The webinar concludes with farmer stories of tillage reduction in organic production, focusing on vegetable, mixed crop and livestock, and grain farms throughout the U.S.
Webinar 9: Sequestering Carbon, Reducing Greenhouse Gases, and Building Climate Resilience through Organic Soil Health Practices
Climate change affects agriculture, and agriculture also contributes to climate change. After sharing some ways in which U.S. agricultural systems can be part of the solution, this webinar dives into organic agriculture as a climate solution: its opportunities and challenges, best practices for carbon sequestration, and best practices for greenhouse gas mitigation. The webinar concludes with a presentation of recent research findings, and their implications for organic agriculture.