By: Nathan Dewing, Agricultural Team Leader, Bradford County Conservation District
 
'Tis the Season for contemplation. Having just come through harvest and entering winter, the growing season pauses and cues us to do the same. The natural world silently screams for us to slow down. It is time to ask again the important questions like - who are we? and why are we? A good time for some solid business planning. Let's consider an often-overlooked opportunity you may way to bring into the picture - the one-tenth principle. 

By: Nathan Dewing, Agricultural Team Leader
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   The Bradford County Conservation District celebrated difference makers at its annual appreciation dinner Friday night at the Troy Sale Barn. Volunteers were appreciated, land managers recognized, projects highlighted, supporters thanked and advances simply celebrated. 
    We all could stand to improve our habit of celebrating both big and little successes. 
   Conservation Districts set up within county jurisdictions across the country are boards of local residents who help promote sound use of natural resources in the community. Bradford County has excelled since its humble 1956 inception. Partnerships with land managers and community members are what make the wheels turn. 

By: Kevin Brown, Ag. Resource Specialist
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It is that time of year again.  For the very important, local people that bring food to your table, it is the time of year to be thinking about how I am going to manage, and even improve, my field health through the winter months.  (This goes for gardens too).  Typically, we have given our fields a rest for the winter.  Sounds like a good idea, right?  Everything needs a rest.  Well, in this case, a rest is basically the starvation of the very soil life that we need to help us grow food.  Look up any kind of article or research on soil health.  Two of the things that good soil health requires are to always keep it covered and have a living root in the ground.  Soil biology feeds off living roots.  Take away the root, take away the food.  Take away the food, everything dies.  You are left with the D word (dirt- which is not even a word in most soil professions).  Why do we want a field to work for us 4-5 months out of the year and against us 7-8 months of the year?  It just doesn’t make any sense.  Read some articles from other parts of the country.  They will tell you that they couldn’t make a living on one crop per year.  They need multiple crops per year.  It would help us an awful lot here too.  How do we do this?  Cover crops.
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