Annual agricultural exhibition organizers schedule diverse topics for farmers, ranchers -- even gardeners
The 52nd annual Delta Farm Forum will be held Saturday at Delta Junction High School. Organizers of the agricultural exposition say there’ll be something for everyone this year, including farmers and ranchers and dairy workers from around the state -- and smaller-scale producers who grow veggies in their backyard garden.
The headliner for this year’s Farm Forum will be a talk about state funding for a grain reserve. That’s a facility the Delta-based Alaska Farmers Co-op will operate to store surplus grain that livestock producers could access when problems like bad weather create a shortage that jacks up the price of feed and forces ranchers to cull their herds -- including their breeding stock.
“In the big picture, this is exciting!” says Phil Kaspari, an agriculture agent with the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Cooperative Extension Service. He’s also the main organizer of the Farm Forum.
“It is going to be a significant development for our local and statewide grain production and consumption,” Kaspari said.
Delta farmer and rancher Scott Mugrage agrees.
“It’s like a savings account,” said Mugrage, who’s also president of the Alaska Farm Bureau’s board of directors. He said in an interview last year that a grain reserve would’ve helped livestock producers struggling to pay high prices two years ago, after two consecutive years of poor harvests.
“That grain’s always going to be there,” he said. “It can be released after a year of drought or disaster, and then could be right back reapportioned after the drought.”
Kaspari said Alaska Farmers Co-op Manager Zach Knight will talk about the grain reserve as part of his Farm Forum presentation. That’ll be followed by a pitch from a Washington-state lender that wants to do business in Alaska for both established farmers and newcomers.
“They’re very interested in, like, youth -- beginning-farmer type of loan,” Kaspari said.
Representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency will talk about federal crop and livestock insurance. And state Agriculture Division Director Brian Scoresby will give an update on what his agency is working on.
After a potluck lunch, Kaspari says other presenters will talk about topics that may be of interest to both farmers and non-farmers. Like longtime Fairbanks Co-op Grocery and Deli board member Robert Leach’s talk on the importance of Alaskan-grown food to his business and its customers, and “To encourage farmers that we’d like to develop more contacts with more producers, and more local products”
Kaspari expects a lot of interest in a presentation on how to invigorate soil through composting.
“For somebody who’s a gardener type, they would appreciate listening-in on that soil-health presentation,” he said.
Also, researchers will talk about a migratory bird species that’s begun showing up regularly around the ag project near Delta.
“A team of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ornithologists have been studying upland sandpiper migration, and how that species utilizes the farm fields,” Kaspari said.
He says those topics help the public understand that farmers care for the land they cultivate.
“Agriculture isn’t all about production,” he added. “There’s certainly a level of land stewardship that plays into land ownership.”
The Farm Forum is presented by the Extension Service and Salcha-Delta Soil and Water Conservation District. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free.
