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.
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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:

• 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

7:00 a.m.-8:00 a.m. Open registration and badge pickup

8:00 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
• Other stations will be run by other area farmers so you'll get multiple perspectives from multiple farming operations

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 the comes from them help hone his operation.
• 100% no-till and cover crops on cotton, soybeans, and corn
• Other stations will be run by other area farmers and organizations so you'll get multiple perspectives from multiple farming operations

4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. Closing Reception & CTIC Hall of Fame Inductions

7:00 p.m. Return to Sheraton