Compost Workshop Planned Thursday

A compost workshop to help farmers learn to increase crop yields will be held Thursday in Ventura.

The workshop is one of 49 nationwide that will simultaneously receive a satellite teleconference titled “Composting: A Tool for Western Agriculture.”

The two-hour broadcast includes a tour of composting sites in the western United States and Canada, and a live question-and-answer session with a panel of experts.

Following the broadcast, two renowned composting experts--Ralph Jurgens and Will Brinton--will be on hand to discuss the benefits of improving soil quality.

Jurgens is an agronomist with New Era Farm Service, which runs one of the state’s largest composting operations; Brinton is chief scientist at Woods End Research Laboratory in Maine, a leader in soils and compost analysis.

Cost of the workshop is $10. The session will run from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at UC Santa Barbara’s Ventura campus, 3585 Maple Ave.

For more information, call 645-1451.