ASK Jeff: The Rodale Institute’s farm manager, Jeff Moyer, answers your hardcore farming questions

Interested in getting universities in Illinois on the no-till plus project?

Posted February 10, 2005

What Jeff brings to the table

Jeff Moyer, who’s been the farm manager here at the 333-acre Rodale Institute research farm for more than a quarter of a century, receives lots of mail from farmers just like you asking for advice. Jeff’s hands-in-the-dirt experience over the past 26 years has run the gamut from refining the farm's cover cropping and crop rotation systems (including managing 270 acres in a rotation of corn, small grains, hay, and edible soy beans for a Japanese market) to overseeing The Rodale Institue Farming Systems Trial®, the world’s longest running side-by-side comparison of organic and conventional agriculture. We thought it would be fun and informative to share some of these farmer-to-farmer exchanges, and Jeff’s practical wisdom, with our NewFarm.org readers … and we’ll be doing it on a regular basis.

Got a question of your own? Send it to Jeff at:
jeff.moyer@rodaleinst.org

Dear Jeff,

I first wanted to say how much I enjoy your website. It has very interesting and helpful information presented in a nice format. I work for a university in Illinois as a research technician on the school’s organic research farm and was wondering about the No-till Plus collaborative field testing. Are you interested in getting universities in Illinois involved? We would most likely be interested in doing research with the No-till Plus/rye roller. If you would like to know more about us, you can learn more by going to www.wiu.edu/ag/stuorg/organicfarm.

Thanks,
Andy Clayton

Dear Andy,

Thank you for your interest in our ‘no-till into cover crop’ work. The grant we received from the USDA will fund work in several regions of the country; we will be working with research scientists and farmers to conduct on-farm studies looking at our organic no-till system under different management scenarios, climates, and cropping systems. At the time we put our proposal together, we did not have a research scientist and a farmer to pair together in your area. What we are going to do is go ahead with our plans as funded but include farmers like yourself in the information stream so you will be able to be kept up to date with the results of what is happening as well as participate in the ongoing discussions. If you have a research contact at the university who would be interested in participating on the research side, we could also discuss how best to include them.

Thanks for your interest,
Jeff

Have some questions to Ask Jeff? E-mail him directly at jeff.moyer@rodaleinst.org.

 
   
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