Nearly 110 growers from Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin joined us for the Stateline Fruit and Vegetable Growers Conference in Rockford on Monday, February 17. This year’s conference was set up in the same format as last year with 3 different tracks and breakout sessions throughout the day.

Since 2013, I have had the privilege to plan this conference with my Extension agriculture team that serves Jo Daviess, Stephenson, and Winnebago counties and we look forward to providing relevant topics, great Extension speakers and researchers from Illinois and other states, and a day of networking among farmers, both beginning and established. Nathan Johanning presented at this conference for the first time and provided growers recommendations on utilizing cover crops, implementing weed management strategies, and selecting pumpkin varieties from his research. We were also fortunate to hear from Local Foods and Small Farms Educators like Alexis Barnes, Nick Frillman, and Zack Grant. Dr. Amaya Atucha, from University of Wisconsin-Madison, shared her research and recommendations on crop load management protocols in apples and day-neutral strawberry production. Of course, every year we are joined by Drs. Kacie Athey and Mohammad Babadoost. Additional speakers included Richard Tobiasz of McHenry County College and Emma Gilbert of Compeer Financial. 

Thanks again to our sponsors of Rupp Seeds, Center for Agrarian Learning, Timac Agro, and Compeer Financial.