A popular event in the agricultural sector is about to get underway in Ridgetown.
The 26th annual Southwest Agricultural Conference starts Thursday morning. The two-day event will focus on several topics, which include new farming techniques, vomitoxin, and nitrogen research.
"There are 45 topics," said Peter Johnson, program co-chair and agronomist with Real Agriculture. "We try hard to have new information in every session."
This year's theme at the conference is "The Road Ahead". The event will include a couple of featured speakers, one of which is Johnson himself.
"We sure are hoping that we are going to deliver on that promise on having the very best and most timely agronomic information possible," he said. "Personally, I couldn't be more excited because on Thursday, the team that I work with -- Enactus, Lambton College, and South West Ag, we're doing a feature presentation on our one seed project."
The other featured speaker is Dr. Brynn L. Winegard, an award-winning professor who will discuss how to overcome challenges and how the brain works. She will take the stage on Friday afternoon.
The event is sold out, however, there are ways to watch from home. Johnson said many of the discussions will be live-streamed.
"We're really full-fledged with live-stream this year and so if you want to get on and watch the program... you won't get all 45 sessions, we simply can't offer that," he said. "But with the live-stream option, you actually have 30 days after the conference to watch the different sessions."
Johnson recommends that attendees get involved as much as possible.
"Talk to us through the sessions, talk to us after the session, there's going to be a ton of new information," he said. "You can only get 14 sessions out of the 45, that's the maximum possible so we always leave you wanting more."
