FAST-FORWARD THROUGH SUMMER

Rick Exner

When I get up now the crickets are singing, not the birds, confirming the calendar is somewhere past mid-summer. When I walk to work, the air holds ripe and maturing plant scents. Summer is on fast-forward, but what season isn’t? For me, the difference with summer is the photo record that goes along with PFI events in the field. The turning point this year seems to be on roll 6-01. It starts with the first John Pesek Colloquium on Sustainable Agriculture, on March 1. The roll proceeds to a few snapshots from the Holistic Livestock Health workshop led by veterinarian Randy Kidd and supported by the Producer SARE grant received by Susan Zacharakis-Jutz. By the end of the frames, we’re into the June 20 field day at New Melleray Abbey.

The field day schedule for August and September is loaded. As noted in the last newsletter, a major motivation behind on-farm research these days is markets that reward particular systems and production practices. “How do I economically produce lambschickensbeanspigscarrots for those markets?” Field days give you the opportunity to visit with people a little further up the learning curve.

With PFI staff changes this summer, it’s a challenge to keep up with field days. After you come to a PFI field day, we usually send you an evaluation to see what you liked and learned. That’s not happening right now, but maybe it will by later in the summer. Special thanks to our members who are making phone calls to invite non-members to field days. Fully 30 percent of PFI’s membership has indicated willingness to occasionally help out with such contacts!