While winter manure application can be beneficial for producers from a logistical, financial, and soil compaction standpoint, it has traditionally been discouraged due to concerns over runoff during spring thaws. Are there ways to spread manure in the winter months without jeopardizing water quality? This edition of The Current Webinar Series features experts from across the region discussing their research on the water quality impacts and winter manure application.

What makes a natural resource and water professional a great communicator? What can we learn from researchers and fellow practitioners to enhance the way we communicate with producers and non-operating landowners? This edition of The Current webinar series focuses on communicating conservation.

We all deserve to have safe clean drinking water that we can trust. In order to do that, we need to ensure we are protecting water at the source – whether that is groundwater or surface water. This edition of The Current Webinar focuses on this important topic. We hear about the Source Water Collaborative, learn how Kansas is working to protect drinking water through improved soil health, and hear how extension is working with communities on source water protection planning.

The agronomic benefits of improving soil health are well known, but when it comes to the specific impacts on water quality off field, many questions remain. This edition of The Current webinar series features three researchers who share their work examining how on-field soil health practices affect water quality off field.

Drought is continuing to intensify across portions of the Midwest this year, and over the past several years severe drought has plagued much of the upper Midwest and northern Plains. This edition of The Current Webinar Series discusses water management during drought – from the latest irrigation technologies to livestock water management.

Join us for this webinar during which soil health techniques such as cover crops, crop rotations, pest management, nutrient management, cash crop establishment, and water management will be discussed.

The subject presentation will provide an overview of the use of stream bank soil bio-engineering practice used as part of NRCS conservation work. Both plant based and structural based practices will be discussed.

Participants will learn how management practices and environmental conditions impact the performance of cover crops that are drill-interseeded into corn early in the growing season.

Participate in this training to learn how cover crop species selection, interseeding timing, corn management, herbicide selection and application timing impact performance of interseeded cover crops. Emphasis will be placed on how to adjust management practices based on conservation goals for interseeeding cover crops.

During this webinar, air quality resource concerns and resource concern components will be highlighted. The NRCS air quality resource concerns can be broadly categorized as particulate matter (such as dust or smoke) and gases that create particles in the atmosphere, greenhouse gases, odors, airborne reactive nitrogen, and ozone precursors (gases that form smog).

Join us to hear Tony Hartshorn, Associate Professor at Montana State University. Dr. Hartshorn will discuss his work in the Soil Interrogation Lab at Montana State University, the importance of soil literacy, and knowing your parent material.