LIQUID at the National No-Till Conference!

 So this past Wednesday was the first day of the National No-Till Conference in Indianapolis.  And as one of the sponsors of this fine event, the A-Team of Liquid-ites was sent to represent.  Below we see the Liquid booth with visitor Joel Armistead of Kentucky who stopped by.  You will remember Joel who was one of the stars along with cory and me on the wildly popular RFD Live TV show last April.  Next to Joel is Stephanie, Ashley, Jake and Galynn.  It was a busy week as there were over 1100 people who attended, a new record.  And probably most of them stopped by the booth at some point.  Later in the week SAM Jourdan and Agronomist Jay also came to the conference.  It lasted till noon Saturday.

The conference was at the Hyatt in downtown Indianapolis.  Here is a view of the booth from the 20th floor.  It's next to the arrow, which was helpful in directing people to our booth.  There were other vendors there as well who are supporters of no-till.

Here is Darrell Bruggink, editor of the No-Till Farmer magazine who puts on the conference.  This was the 21st one, and with that many attendees, it is a lot of work for all of the staff of the magazine and Lesiter Publications and its founder, Frank Lessiter who started this.  But there is a lot of good information to create such a draw.  There are presentations by a variety of no-till experts, round table farmer discussions, other no-till vendors plus the opportunity to network with other no-tillers from around the country.  Darrell is making a speaker introduction during one of the general sessions.

This would give an idea of the attendance here at the Friday lunch banquet.  There were also tables out in the hall.  But you could still see and hear.

One of the activities at that banquet is the awarding of the Responsible Nutrient Management Practitioner for 2013.  It is given by the Responsible Nutrient Management Foundation, of which Agro-Liquid is a sponsor, and serves to recognize innovative growers who practice and promote No-Till farming.  The recipients are selected by a panel of independent no-till experts who review applications and select three awardees.  One of the winners was our friend Joel Armistead, who is getting his plaque from Jim Peterson of the RNMF.  Congratulations Joel.

Joel, along with the other winners for 2013, John Niemeyer of Nebraska and Grant Troop of Pennsylvania, gave a panel presentation about the no-till practices that they employ on their farms, and what they've learned over the years.  It was a very good learning opportunity for everyone.

And I was fortunate to be asked to make a classroom presentation on Fertilizer Placement Options for No-Till and Strip Till.  You know how humble I am, so I was surprised by the turnout to listen to little ol' me, close to 200 even.  I reviewed some published research on fertilizer in the soil and placement and capped it off with some of the research from the North Central Research Station.  There seemed to be good interest as I didn't see too many walk out, and lots of questions at the end. 

Afterwards, Ashley and Stephanie had an in-depth discussion back at the booth on the highlights of my presentation.

So it was a good long week of No-Till.  I am anxious to put some of the ideas learned into practice at the NCRS.  I'll keep you posted.  But you may want to make plans to attend the 22nd conference next year in Springfield, IL.  Be There!