During the spring of 2024, Fields of Sinsinawa has embarked on several projects and is planning a variety of events. A summary of these endeavors is below.
Annual Conference:
Soul of the Soil
To celebrate this year’s progress and activities, Fields of Sinsinawa will host our first annual conference on September 23-24, 2024 at Sinsinawa Mound and Chestnut Mountain Lodge. The conference will feature guest speakers addressing regenerative ag principles, farmer panels, a visioning session for future partnerships, a special workshop for new farmer-led groups, updates on the Fields of Sinsinawa’s first year activities, a soil pit, tours of the Dave Brandt memorial corn field, adaptive management grazing demo, and more.
Pop-Up Event with Ecdysis 1,000 Farms Initiative
Monday, August 5 • 2-4pm
Thank you to our outstanding group of 40+ attendees that joined us for hands-on learning about soil and water health!
- Soil health demos
- Easy soil tests you can do on your farm
- What is your water telling you?
Join us in the Boiler Building at Sinsinawa Mound (514 County Road Z, Sinsinawa, WI)
The Ecdysis Foundation, a non-profit research farm based in Estelline, SD, is visiting Fields of Sinsinawa August 2-9 to take an inventory of the biological life at the Mound as part of their 1,000 Farms Initiative. Fields of Sinsinawa will serve as a hub in the area, and the Ecdysis staff will gather baseline data from 16 area farms for their project.
Adaptive Management Grazing
Adaptive management grazing involves using relatively high stocking rates in small paddocks and moving the animals when cues from the animals suggest they are no longer getting the nutrients they need from the current paddock. It differs from mob grazing in that there is no prescribed/set amount of time in each paddock. The operator watches the behavior of the animals to make decisions. Demonstrations of this system will be held during summer 2024.
Cover Crops/Living Roots
Plans are in the works to continue implementing as many of the soil care practices as possible. Later in the season, we will evaluate the possibility of planting cover crops after wheat harvest and after chopping corn silage. Additional cover crops may be planted, depending upon how the growing season plays out.
Popup Events
Throughout the growing season, Fields of Sinsinawa will host several popup field day events to showcase field activities and highlight what we’ve been learning from the soils. Some of the topics to be covered include using biological primers after wheat harvest and chopping silage, interseeding cover crops into corn, implementing adaptive management grazing, and more. Interested in receiving a notification of when the popup events will be? Contact us!