Sawyer Farm Reduced-Till Perennial Clover Trials

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Over the past several seasons, farmers at Sawyer have been experimenting with different ways to plant row crops into perennial white clover and reduce tillage using a series of innovative practices. Join CISA, UMass Extension, Berkshire Conservation District, Hampden-Hampshire Conservation District, and Sawyer Farm’s Lincoln Fishman for a close look at transplanter shoe adaptations designed to reduce soil disturbance and weed competition in perennial clover and cash crop production.

This in-person workshop will be followed with an on-farm networking opportunity and equipment demo. Berkshire Conservation District will display their no-till drill seeder, which is available for rentals and can be used for mixed or single species applications from clovers and orchard grass to rye and soybeans, and the Hampden-Hampshire Conservation District will display their ESCH 5605 seed drill. The workshop is co-sponsored by CISA and UMass Extension, and will take a close look at the system and the research underway with UMass through a SARE Partnership Grant, and is part of CISA’s 2023 Adapt Your Farm to Climate Change Webinar and Workshop Series: On-farm Climate Change Adaptation Case Studies from western Massachusetts.

Presenter: Sawyer Farm is in Worthington, MA. Lincoln, Hilary, Erica, and Butch have been growing vegetables at Sawyer since 2010.

This is an in-person event at 42 Old North Rd, Worthington, MA, 01098

Contact Stephen Taranto, CISA Climate Program Coordinator, at stephen@buylocalfood.org or 413-665-7100 ext. 17 with any questions.

This work is supported by the Beginning Farmer and Ranger Development Program grant no. 2020-70017-32420 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.