I have learned at least one thing over my career in agriculture (almost 20 years now which means my kids are probably right when they say I'm not as young as I think I am). When looking for crop production information, farmers trust other farmers as much or more than those of us in the agrologist profession. Researchers and extension workers rank up there pretty high as do most farm input retailers. Chemical reps can rank anywhere from just below the former group to right near the bottom when the only time a farmer calls you is after he has read the label and loaded the 12 gauge. Being a former chemical rep I can truthfully hold this opinion. But knowing that farmers get a lot of information from other farmers has made us at the SSCA very aware of the need for our programs to accommodate this farmer to farmer dialogue.
Currently the SSCA has a program in place called Farmers Helping Farmers. It is a data base of information from our members that includes their experiences with various seeding machines, openers, crops, rotations and other soil conservation practices. This information is available to any member or interested farmer who is seeking information on soil conservation or direct seeding. Often we are called by farmers who are looking for someone who can give them first hand experience on one of these topics. As our membership grows and the word spreads of the existence of this service we feel the information transfer between farmers will only get better.
This fall the SSCA will initiate another program designed to put farmers together in a very informal setting to foster the free flow of information. The program is called the Kitchen Table Program which aims to link those farmers with direct seeding expertise with those who seek this information. The setting will be around the kitchen table at the home of a farmer with the expertise. An SSCA soil conservationist will be present (as will be other specialists where requested) to facilitate the meeting and provide technical information on whatever topics are discussed relating to direct seeding. In this way we hope to see more farmers adopt the practice of direct seeding on at least some if not all of their cultivated acres.
Although next spring is a long way away we hope the kitchen table program will carry on into the growing season. Our plan is to have some of these groups get together again to visit fields that have been seeded using suggestions from the winter group discussions. Thus the crop production and soil conservation results from the information passed on in the winter sessions can be seen first hand and adopted to other operations during the next season.
Farmers on the prairies have a long tradition of helping other farmers to be successful in their operations. We at the SSCA will build on this tradition to help all farmers in their production operations while at the same time encouraging the protection of our soil resource and our environment for the benefit of future generations.