Be sure to check the flyer you receive when you enter the grounds of Horse Progress Days to see how many other seminars have been added to the event.
Produce Seminars
Soil Health
by Leon Hershberger of Cushman Creek Supply
Leon and Margaret Hershberger own Cushman Creek Supply which has been in business 23 years serving their customers with fertility and nutrient products to enhance farming, greenhouse, and high tunnel operations. Their family-owned business is a source of high quality and effective products throughout the states of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Wisconsin.
Leon offers a product line which is founded on the principles of research and results, and year after year the benefits of offering a complete program including soluble plant food concentrates, biological soil additives, humates, trace minerals and surfactants has rewarded his customers with healthy soil and abundant yields. Leon’s purpose is to answer your questions and concerns. Your problems deserve honest answers which he provides through experience and a solid platform of nutritional inputs.
Leon’s focus of interest is the plant’s immune system which supports its health and vigor throughout its life cycle. The programs designed and products supplied by Cushman Creek Supply support the plant’s immune system to help it ward off insects and disease. The foundation of health comes from fertile soil enriched with organic matter and trace minerals. Most of our soils are depleted in the essential nutrients required for growing healthy plants. Leon has spent years learning and teaching about the effects of too much nitrogen, a major cause of yellow shoulder and green core in tomatoes, as well as reducing quality and flavor,
His seminar will offer tips on how to keep nitrogen under control. Leon also teaches the indicators to look for before problems show up in your plants. You will learn the language of plants and what they are telling us.
In Leon’s seminar you will also learn the value of soil tests and the correct way to take soil samples. Your soil tests will give you the recommended dry fertility products (N-P-K) to apply to build a good base along with the trace minerals and other nutrients required for healthy and abundant yields.
Soil health is Leon’s goal, but in addition, earning a living from the crops it produces is primary. He will help you grow nutrient-dense vegetables that will contribute to the health of your family as well as your customers and their families.
I&J No Till Cover Crop Roller
by Jim Hoorman Soil Consultant
Glyphosate/Round-Up™, that ubiquitous chemical that is sprayed onto thousands of acres of cropland every spring to kill weeds and cover crops, and then again in the fall to hasten dry-down of cereal crops. It ties up soil nutrients so that they are less available to plants, it promotes the mutation of certain weeds to be resistant to it and grow anyway, and its effects on birds and bees and people health are barely known, but suspiciously regarded. The I&J roller/crimper offers a way out. Mr. Hoorman will be talking about the advantages offered by practicing no chemical no-till systems of crop production. He is especially familiar with using the system in corn and soybean crops. He will talk about when to roll the cover crop and most importantly, he will explain his recommendation to plant primary crops into cover crops before rolling them down, and how this practice helps to maintain cooler and more moist soils and how the dying cover crop leaves and stems can provide nutrition for corn and soybean crops. All this in an effort to promote plant growth and to affect higher crop yields. With the cost increases and availability of Round-up™ becoming more of an issue, this seminar will offer a breath of fresh air to farmers who might consider another way.
This seminar will be offered in the produce seminar area, but it will be pertinent to farmers growing large acreages of commodity crops as well, since Mr. Hoorman consults with at least one Midwest farmer who covers as many as 7,000 acres.
Family Farming Opportunities
by Joe Dean Eash
Joe Dean Eash grew up on a dairy farm in LaGrange Indiana. In 2008 he married his wife JoAnna. Together they are raising a family of five girls and one boy. They live on a parcel of five acres. They started their produce journey in 2019 with one 20×98′ greenhouse and have increased their production from there. First, early in the season, they raise flowers. Then there are tomatoes and onions in the summertime markets, and then in the fall its chrysanthemums. 2022 was the third year that Joe was at home full time. He and JoAnna really appreciate the time they get to spend with one another and working with the children as they grow up. Sit in on this seminar if you want to learn how to successfully use a small acreage to provide for your family in ways that include economic as well as mental, physical and emotional well-being, for the whole family.
Produce Growing Opportunities
Produce Grower Panels
Depending on where we look these days it may seem like the family farm is a thing of the past. Not so fast, should be a mindful reaction to such thoughts. Successful family farming is being modeled throughout this issue of the Horse Progress Days Program Guide. If you take the time to read it you will see that there are many examples of families working together for their own good and for the good of various communities, some near them and some more distant. If you want to hear from people who are walking the walk, come and hear them talk the talk in these two panel discussions. One will deal with the growing of vine crops like pumpkins, watermelons, cantaloupe and cucumbers. This one will be resourced by Freeman Miller of LaGrange, David Fry also from LaGrange and Paul Coblentz from Middlebury. The other panel will have a broader topic as it discusses the pros and cons of growing produce. This one will be resourced by Daniel Schrock of LaGrange, Titus Oberholtzer of Wakarusa and David Miller of Middlebury. Come and listen to be inspired to pursue your own dreams of family farming or to be inspired simply by the discussions you will be a part of. ✸