UMaine Cooperative Extension Offers Grain Production Workshop and Field Day
Contact: Richard Kersbergen, 207-342-5971, richardk@umext.maine.edu
SIDNEY, Me. — University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the Maine Organic Milk Producers plan a grain production workshop and field day for interested dairy producers on Thursday, August 2 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Those who attend will get a chance to visit farms that have been experimenting with grain production to supplement the diets of their dairy cows. The program will start at the Rainbow Valley Farm on River Road in Sidney, where signs will direct visitors to the field-day site. Later that afternoon, the tour will head to Bullridge Farm on Bog Road in Albion. Lunch will be offered for $5 by RSVP only; to RSVP or for more information, please call the UMaine Extension office in Waldo County at 800-287-1426 (in Maine) or 207-342-5971.
Beginning at Rainbow Valley Farm, the tour will examine the plots where the Bragg family grows both winter and spring organic grains. Extension Educator Richard Kersbergen will discuss the plantings, and also lead a discussion about the issues of growing winter grains in Maine and the value of growing winter grains as both a forage and grain crop to reduce feed costs.
The tour will proceed to Bullridge Farm, owned and operated by the Perkins family. Visitors will see some trials involving soybeans, and will tour plots of small grains including winter spelt, a grain that has received increasing attention for its use in human as well as livestock feeding markets. Lauren Kolb, a graduate student of UMaine’s Department of Plant, Soil and Environmental Sciences, will be on hand to discuss some innovative weed-control techniques in small grains that are being implemented in Europe and experimented with at the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station farm in Orono.
This field day is based on support and research partnerships provided by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, the USDA/CSREES Integrated Organic Program, the Northeast Center for Risk Management Education, the Agricultural Research Service/New England Plant, Soil and Water Lab, the University of Vermont and the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station.