Organic dairy workshop set March 3

COLUMBUS – Wisconsin dairy farmer and author Gary Zimmer will lead a one-day intensive workshop on organic dairy production March 3, 2006, at the Stratford Ecological Center in Delaware, Ohio.
The workshop precedes the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association’s annual two-day conference March 4-5.
Zimmer will explain certified organic dairy production from the ground up. In the morning, he will lead a discussion on effective ways to improve and manage nutrients in the soil for quality forages and feeds. The afternoon will focus on the animals themselves: organic herd management, from newborn to adult, and herd health.
Zimmer will also discuss techniques for transitioning to organic production.
Background. Zimmer, who was raised on a Wisconsin dairy farm, studied dairy nutrition in college, earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s from the University of Hawaii. For the past 25 years, he has been evaluating farming practices as a farmer on his family’s farm, as a consultant, and as president of Midwestern Bio-Ag, a biological farming consulting company in Wisconsin.
He operates the Bio-Ag Learning Center, where biological farming practices and agricultural products are field tested. The Zimmer family’s organic farming operations include more than 1,500 acres, a 150-cow organic dairy, and pasture-raised pigs and beef cattle.
He has also written The Biological Farmer, A Complete Guide to the Sustainable & Profitable Biological System of Farming, published in 2000.
The workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Stratford Ecological Center in Delaware, and will include a lunch featuring organic and locally produced foods. Registration fees begin at $40.
Annual conference. Zimmer will also deliver the keynote address March 4 at OEFFA’s 27th annual conference.
Experts from Ohio and around the country will share sustainable agriculture production and marketing techniques through a wide variety of workshops.
The two-day annual conference will be held at the Granville High School in Granville.
For further information visit www.oeffa.org or call 614-421-2022.