Join us for field days this summer!

We’re partnering with wonderful organizations to bring you 5 events. Field days will span across southern Wisconsin and into central Illinois, highlighting innovative practices both at working organic farms and research stations. They’ll feature farmers with creative solutions that support the diversification of crops to support domestic and value-added organic grain markets.

The field days in this series are designed to provide valuable information to certified organic farmers, as well as farmers interested in exploring the transition to certified organic production on some or all their acres, as well as farmers interested in cover crops, soil health practices, or diverse crops and markets.

2025 Field Days

Funding for field days has been provided by the USDA’s Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP). To learn more about this program, you can go to https://www.organictransition.org/ or attend one of our field days.

Organic Cereals Field Walk

June 25th, 4 – 7 pm
UW–Madison West Madison Agricultural Research Station, Madison, WI

Please join UW–Madison Extension’s Emerging Crops Accelerator, Seed to Kitchen Collaborative, Cereals Breeding Program, Picasso Research Group, Artisan Grain Collaborative, and OGRAIN for an informal field walk to learn more about our organic trials of hard and soft winter wheat, winter naked barley, spring naked oats and kernza. We will tour the field trials and breeding projects and hear the latest about variety releases and research on regional food grade grains.

For more information on this field day, head to their event listing. No registration is required for this free event.

Organic Grains to Glass Field Day at McHugh Farms and La Crosse Distilling Co.

July 17th, 1 – 7:30 pm
McHugh Farm & La Crosse Distilling Co., Onalaska & La Crosse, WI

Marbleseed and OGRAIN will join Patrick McHugh for a tour of his diverse farm, including gardens, grains, livestock, and a large composting system. We’ll learn about their grain and growing practices as well as the journey from harvest to La Crosse Distilling Co. We’ll also learn about their compost system and process including their composting relationship with La Crosse Distilling Co. Cap off the day with a social hour at La Crosse Distilling Co. to see this full circle system in action.

For more information on this field day, head to Marbleseed’s event page. You can register for this free event through their event page.

Organic Grain Soil Health, Testing, and an Introduction to Agroforestry with Otter Creek Organic Farm at Twin Crix

August 19th, 10 am – 3 pm
Twin Crix Farm, Spring Green, Wisconsin

Join OGRAIN at Twin Crix Farm in Spring Green, WI, on Tuesday, August 19th, for a day of organic field walks and soil health talks. Gary Zimmer will share how he uses tests to make informed decisions to increase soil health. From soil tests to tissue tests to feed tests, he’ll discuss them all. Sandy Syburg will share results from an on-farm nitrogen and cover crop study led by Michael Fields Agriculture Institute. We’ll also hear an update on the work of Rye Revival. In the afternoon, we’ll discuss grain crop rotations and tour fields of corn, clover, and rye. We’ll end the day with an agroforestry field tour and introduction with Patrick Michaels. For a more in-depth dive into agroforestry, join the Savanna Institute on Wednesday, August 20th.

This event is free and includes lunch, but please register in advance to help us plan!

UW Organic Research Field Day

August 26th, 9:30 am – 3 pm
UW–Madison Arlington Agricultural Research Station, Arlington, Wisconsin

This field day will feature tours and talks about the latest research in organic grains and forages, including methods for reducing tillage in corn and soybeans, no-till dry beans, advances in organic food-grade grains, emerging crops, using biocontrol agents to manage white mold in soybean, and an on-farm research project studying soil health in organic grain systems.

This event is free and includes lunch, but please register in advance to help us plan!

Farmer – Distiller Grain Connections at Cow Creek Organic Farm and Silver Tree Spirits

August 27th, 10:00 am – 4:30 pm
Cow Creek Organic Farm and Silver Tree Spirits, Paxton, Illinois

Join OGRAIN, Artisan Grain Collaborative, The Land Connection, IDEA Farm Network and Rodale Institute for this unique field day tailored for both farmers and distillers to learn in the field and at the distillery. Dallas and Will Glazik will lead us as we tour organic fields and discuss proper food-grade grain handling at Cow Creek Organic Farm. We’ll transition to Silver Tree Spirits for lunch featuring a farmer & distiller panel followed by organic buyer/seller networking time. We’ll wrap up the day with a distillery tour, grain quality talk, and optional off-flavor tasting. Have lingering questions or want to spend more time enjoying this great group of folks? Stick around the distillery to keep the conversation going. Come out to explore and network across the grain chain.

Event Schedule
10:00 am – 12:15 pm: Field & Handling Tours at Cow Creek Organic Farm
12:45 pm – 2:45 pm: Lunch with Midwest Farmer & Distiller Panel &
Organic Buyer/Seller Mixer at Silver Tree Spirits
2:45 pm – 4:30 pm: Distillery Tour, Off-Flavor Tasting, & Grain Quality Discussion at Silver Tree Spirits
4:30 pm – 6:00 pm: Optional Social Time

This event is free and includes lunch, but please register in advance to help us plan!

Thank you to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP). Midwest TOPP supported the morning session and National TOPP supported the afternoon market-focused session. TOPP is a program of the USDA Organic Transition Initiative and is administered by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) National Organic Program (NOP).

Past Workshop: Reducing Tillage in Organic Dairy

More about our Speakers

Presentations will include Erin Silva’s session on strategies for minimizing tillage in organic corn. She’ll share Silva Lab research into minimizing tillage in organic corn systems including interseeding cover crops on 30” and 60” corn rows, management of living mulch corn systems, and no-till planting corn directly into cover crops.

We’ll also hear from researcher Ben Brockmueller on equipment considerations for successful organic no-till management. He’ll lead a discussion exploring what equipment and tools are needed to successfully implement organic no-till grain systems and an exploration of the latest research into the efficacy of these tools. 

County Conservationist, Dave Hettenbach, will share organic certification tips gleaned from his career as an Organic Inspector.

Andy Glodowski, experienced Soil Agronomist/Independent Consultant with Bluff Country Feed & Seed, LLC, will provide insight into cover cropping for successful row cropping.