Summer Cover Crop Management

Our summer session asks: How can cover crops build soil during the growing season? Together, we’ll explore how summer cover crops can be designed and integrated into small-scale farm systems to support soil health while fields are between production crops.

We’ll begin with a brief overview of summer cover crop species, mixes, and planting strategies before heading into the fields to observe cover crop trials and discuss the tools and techniques used to seed and manage them on both tractor-scale and hand-scale farms.

Whether you’re a farmer, land steward, or simply curious about soil health, this workshop offers practical insights to help you integrate summer cover crops into your land stewardship practices.

• Summer Cover Crop Design: Learn how to select species and mixes, determine appropriate seeding densities, and design summer cover crop systems that fit into your growing schedule.
• Field-Based Learning: Walk through Oxbow’s production fields and see different cover crop species and mixes in action.
• System Integration: Understand how summer cover crops support soil health in organic farming systems and how they fit into broader crop rotations and soil stewardship plans.

Anthony Reyes brings over 17 years of experience at the intersection of food, agriculture, and social justice, having worked with nonprofit farms across the West Coast. He was honored as WaSHI’s 2024 Producer of the Year, recognized for his community-rooted leadership in soil health and organic practices.

Anthony serves as a Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP) mentor, supporting farmers across the region in their shift to certified organic growing. He’s the author of the Fertility Guide Companion and a frequent guest lecturer at seminars and conferences, including the Organic Farm School.

At Oxbow, we’re proud to celebrate Anthony not just for his accolades, but for the grounded, reciprocity-centered philosophy he brings into his practice every day. And honestly, we can’t get enough of his joyful tangents into topics including biomass and lignin content. His curiosity is contagious.

We’re excited to offer this workshop (valued at $30) for FREE, thanks to generous funding from 4Culture’s Doors Open grant and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP). TOPP is a program of the USDA Organic Transition Initiative and is administered by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) National Organic Program (NOP). To learn more visit organictransition.org.

All participants must register in advance—spaces are limited!

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Host or Publisher Oxbow Farm & Conservation Center