Farmers, researchers and students will gather Thursday, June 24, for the 2004 Sustainable Agriculture Conservation Tillage Field Day at UC Davis.

Keynote speaker will be Charles "Chuck" Ahlem, undersecretary of agriculture for the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

The event, which will run from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., will include field reports on a variety of topics including water management, weed control, soil fertility and the economic impact of conservation tillage.

Conservation tillage is any tillage and planting system that leaves more than 30 percent of the soil covered with crop residue to prevent erosion. The goal of limited and no-till practices is to address the economics of production and losses of farmland soils.

The field day will be held at UC Davis' Russell Ranch, seven miles west of the main campus on Russell Boulevard. The site houses the Long-Term Research in Agricultural Systems experiment and is the new home of the Conservation Tillage Project. Future plans call for the site to house the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences' emerging integrated farming systems initiatives.

For the past 16 years, the Conservation Tillage Project has compared alternative and conventional farming practices, and was known as the Sustainable Agriculture Farming Systems Project.

"We're now emphasizing conservation or reduced tillage, and the use of non-cash cover crops to improve soil and water quality in typical California cropping systems, " said William Horwath a professor of land, air and water resources.

Some of the most important results from the original Sustainable Agriculture Farming Systems project showed where growers can reduce the use of synthetic fertilizer; how to manage cover crops, crop residue and soil organic matter; and how to control weeds and pests with fewer pesticides.