Speakers and Stations Added for Conservation in Action Tour

Regenerative farmers to provide perspectives on circular production systems that scale.  

This year’s Conservation in Action Tour will feature 10+ innovative farmers, each presenting their own station to broaden perspectives for attendees interested in diverse rotations, profitability of conservation practices, market development opportunities, conservation financing, nutrient management, technology, and data benchmarking and monetization.

The 19th annual Conservation in Action Tour, June 3-4 in and around Raleigh, N.C., brings farmers, agriculture professionals, and conservation leaders together for immersive learning and producer perspectives focused on regenerative agricultural systems that have proven scalability. 

Newly Announced

• Tidewater Grain Co.’s 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.
• Donny Lassiter of Lassiter Family Farms 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.

The Conservation in Action Tour is a two-day celebration that kicks off June 3 with optional behind-the-scenes industry tours at BASF, Cotton Incorporated, and NC State Plant Sciences. That evening, attendees will gather in downtown Raleigh for the Celebration of Conservation Agriculture Banquet, featuring keynote speaker Vivian Howard, a champion for North Carolina’s farming families, agricultural heritage, and food culture. 

On June 4, the on-farm experience begins at Leggett Farming Partnership near Nashville, showcasing diverse rotations and cropping systems that produce cotton, soybeans, corn, tobacco, strawberries, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and watermelon.

The afternoon visit to Z3 Agriculture in Scotland Neck features producer Zeb Winslow’s 100% no-till and cover-crop system and his innovative equipment modifications for planting into high-residue covers. One of two finalists for the Sand County Foundation’s 2025 Carolinas Leopold Conservation Award, Winslow collects data from on-farm research plots he designs and has tracked during the past 7 years to dial in his fertility program and varieties

We’re adding more speakers every day! See more speakers and the full agenda to see why Conservation in Action is America’s Premier On-Farm Experience!