Conservation in Action Tour

The Conservation in Action Tour is proud to co-locate with the Field to Market 2026 Annual Meeting and the Farmers for Soil Health State Partner Education Meeting. Programming for both events will run all day on June 2 and during the morning of June 3, allowing participants to attend the full program of the Conservation in Action Tour beginning at 1:30 on June 3.

We're proud to offer special rates to these partner organizations, as well as full-time students and full-time farmers to make America's premier on-farm experience as accessible as possible.

Get out of your Zoom Room and get on-farm with conservation agriculture's leading organizations, technical assistance providers, and farmer perspectives.

6:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m. CTIC Board Meeting and Dinner (members only)

8:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Bonus Session: The Field to Market 2026 Annual Meeting welcomes CTIC Tour registrants to its Cross-Sector Dialogue, State of the Sector Forum, and networking opportunities before our official start. A special half-day rate (lunch provided) and registration link will be provided in your Tour registration confirmation email.

Pre-Tour Primers and Celebration of Conservation Agriculture

11:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Open registration and badge pickup

12:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Viridis View Data Workshop (invitation only)
A new conservation practice benchmarking collaborative addresses urgent need to track conservation trends in near real-time.
Learn More

1:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. Pre-Tour Primers | Choose Your Own Adventure
Your registration includes access to one of these concurrent, behind-the-scenes industry tours:

• SOLD OUT! BASF Center for Sustainable Agriculture: Explore BASF's education and innovation hub with interactive exhibits highlighting sustainable agriculture, fiber, biofuels, conservation, and biodiversity. In addition, tour a large sustainable greenhouse and stroll in the pollinator garden with more than 100 plant species.

• Cotton Incorporated: Engage with interactive demonstrations showcasing the latest innovations in cotton production, fiber quality research, and sustainability tools that help growers optimize yield and environmental outcomes — all designed to bridge on-farm practice with market and supply chain insights.

• NC State Plant Sciences: See cutting-edge research infrastructure and hear from plant scientists about advances in crop genetics, data-driven trait development, and interdisciplinary work that connects fundamental plant science to real-world farm productivity and sustainability.

1:30 p.m. Buses depart for tours

4:00 p.m. Buses depart from industry tours

4:30 p.m. Buses return to Sheraton Raleigh Hotel

5:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Celebration of Conservation Agriculture and Keynote | Union Hall

• Cocktail hour & hors d’oeuvres

• Welcome and opening ceremonies

• Dinner: Sustainably sourced, locally grown menu items that represent North Carolina agriculture and culture.

• Keynote Presentation | Vivian Howard
  • Vivian Howard is an award-winning cookbook author, TV personality, chef, restaurateur, and a farm kid from Deep Run, N.C. Her first cookbook, Deep Run Roots: Stories & Recipes from My Corner of the South (2016), is a New York Times bestseller and was named Cookbook of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

• Closing remarks and continued networking

Conservation in Action Tour | America’s Premier On-Farm Experience

6:30 a.m.-7:30 a.m. Open registration and badge pickup

7:30 a.m. Buses depart for farm tours

8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

Leggett Farming Partnership

• Hear from a generational farm with diverse cropping systems and a mindset that fosters continuous improvement.
• Corn, cotton, soybeans, sweet potatoes, tobacco, strawberries, watermelon
• Vertically integrated sweet potato packer/shipper

Tidewater Grain Co.

• Founder Tommy Wheeler will showcase how it has established itself as the premier grower of heirloom, heritage, and landrace grains in the Southeast. Every part of Tidewater’s rice crop is utilized, from the long-grain, premium rice to the husks as a soil amendment and fertilizer. Broken rice is sold as middlins, and the bran is sold as a feed supplement.

Data Management for Supply Chain Transparency 

• U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol and Cotton Incorporated dig into the data fueled by the Field to Market Fieldprint Platform that drives sustainability outcomes and producer access to premium markets.

Nash Produce 

• Tour the year-round packer/shipper facility at Nash Produce, which sources sweet potatoes from area farmers, including Leggett Farming Partnership, which is a co-owner of the facility.

Noon:

Lunch program featuring North Carolina State Research Partnership, an 18-station collaboration between North Carolina State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. 

• Upper Coastal Plain Research Station is the oldest of the 18 research stations, and scientists conduct extensive projects on the 440-acre site, including tobacco and peanut breeding, disease and insect management studies, and testing experimental pesticides for field crops such as corn, soybeans, and cotton.
• The collaborative also includes the Center for Environmental Farming Systems at Cherry Research Station.

1:30 p.m.

Z3 Agriculture, Zeb Winslow

• One of the most progressive row croppers in North Carolina, extensive on-farm trials and the data that come from them help hone his operation.
• 100% no-till and cover crops on cotton, soybeans, and corn

JHR Grain Farms & Revolution Drones

• Utilizing Technology to Validate Regen Ag:
  Russell Hedrick is a first-generation farmer, Leopold Conservation Award winner, serial entrepreneur, and dryland corn yield record holder (459.91 bushels per acre in 2022) in Hickory, N.C. He grows 650 acres of non-GMO corn and soybeans, along with barley, oats, triticale, and wheat. His crops thrive amid drought thanks to the soil’s improved capacity to infiltrate and hold moisture, while cycling biological nutrients. He credits soil health practices with reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting nearby streams from sediment runoff.
• He has co-founded a handful of farmer-first businesses, most recently Revolution Drones, Regen Mills, Heritage Ground, Farmers Reserve Distillery, Soil Regen, and Southern Seeds and Feeds.

Lassiter Family Farms

• Donny Lassiter and the Soil Health Institute will demonstrate how to use visual indicators to measure soil health. Lassiter Family Farms uses cover crops in the fall and winter, and they plant their crops with no-till. Major demand drivers include Ralph Lauren as a destination for the farm’s premium cotton and Major League Baseball as a buyer of the farm’s peanuts.

Comprehensive Agronomy for Nutrient Management

• Data, prescriptions, and trusted advisers drive 4R principles that are critical for North Carolina’s Coastal Plain and maximizing ROI. With heavy seasonal rainfall, frequent flooding, and unique soil compositions, producers are required to employ careful and balanced nutrient management across both cropland and livestock operations.

5:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Closing Reception & CTIC Hall of Fame Inductions

8:00 p.m. Return to the Sheraton