University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension will provide corn and soybean producers information on how to be successful with no-till farming practices at the Nebraska No-Till Conference.

The conference will be held from 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. on February 20 at the UNL’s Agricultural Research and Development Center near Mead and on Feb. 21 at the Ag Center in Holdrege. Registration begins at 9 a.m.

Conference organizers, UNL Extension Educators, Keith Glewen and Chuck Burr, and Paul Jasa, UNL Extension Engineer, indicated that producers will learn the benefits of no-till and how it can work for them.

Speakers include no-till farmers, university specialists and industry representatives.

The ARDC conference focuses on “Three Farmers, Three No-Tillers, Three Different Stories” with presentations by Duane Lange, Keith Thompson and Jerry Crew. Other topics include: Controlling Trees in No-Till with Lowell Sandell, UNL Extension Weed Science Educator and What I Heard Today and What I Learned in 2007! with Paul Jasa, UNL Extension Engineer

No-till farmers Lange and Thompson will also speak at the Holdrege conference and Jasa’s topic will change to “Residue Management – Achieving Uniform Emergence”. Dwayne Beck, of Prairie Lakes Research Farm, Pierre, SD, will present Do You “C” What I “C”. And a Rainfall Simulator Demonstration on Conventional and No-Till Soils will be provided by Dan Gillespie, NRCS No-Till Specialist.

Pre-registration is due February 13. For more information or to register at the ARDC location, call (402)624-8030 or (800)529-8030 or e-mail at kglewen1@unl.edu. For more information or to register at the Holdrege location, call (308) 995-4222 or e-mail cburr1@unl.edu. Online registration available at http://ardc.unl.edu/no-till.shtml.

Download the flyer at http://ardc.unl.edu/08NoTillConference.pdf.

There is no fee for this conference, courtesy of the following sponsors: UNL Extension in the university's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Nebraska Soybean Board, Lower Platte North Natural Resources District, Tri-Basin Natural Resources District, Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Farm Credit Services of America. John Deere Risk Protection and Ag Service Associates.

The Walt Disney World Resort, will be recruiting on-campus for their College Program internship experience. This internship offers real-world work experience to students of all majors. Visit our website for more information, and attend either upcoming presentation being held in the Student Union: Tues, Feb 19 at 5:00 and Wed, Feb 20 at noon.

"Permanence and Transmission: Willa Cather's Entropology" Speaker: Guy Reynolds, Professor of English and Director, Cather Project, UNL. Reception begins at 3:00 p.m. Free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Center for Great Plains Studies.

Suddenly, it’s bioenergy - ethanol and biodiesel. Bioenergy to solve the climate change problem caused by greenhouse gases. Bioenergy to inject vitality into declining rural communities. Bioenergy to free us from international oil villains. But wait… Bioenergy will drive food prices up and starve the poor by appropriating the food supply for energy. Bioenergy will ruin our livestock sector. Bioenergy will deforest the tropics and desertify the plains. Bioenergy will benefit farm landowners, but no one else. And bioenergy will happen only with billions of dollars of subsidies - can we afford it? In this course, students will evaluate the prospects for biofuels in the context of climate change and the world energy market. Participants will first review climate change assessments and the relationship of climate change to world energy markets, and will then examine the potential role of biofuels in reducing carbon emissions. Issues to be addressed include the potential effects of biofuels on food security and on natural resource sustainability, and a comparison of biofuel subsidies versus carbon taxes in mitigating climate change. Participants will be expected to research and report on scientific studies, and to learn and utilize various approaches to cost-benefit evaluation of public policies. Our goal is not to resolve the difficult questions raised above, but help students to sharpen their ability to analyze them and perhaps to more effectively advocate world-saving choices.