Nearly 700 farmers from around the state will tour some of the best farms in north Alabama and southern Tennessee Aug. 4-6 during the 39th annual Commodity Producers Conference.

Designed to help farmers improve the profitability of their operations, the conference will extend its Rocket City tour opportunities to Alabama’s young farmers.

“With our last conference in this area occurring in 2006, we are excited about being back in the Huntsville area,” said Jimmy Carlisle, director of the Alabama Farmers Federation’s Department of Governmental and Agricultural Programs.

“We are especially excited to have the Federation’s Young Farmers Division join our conference this year.”

Friday’s activities are filled with visits to farms and other agricultural points of interest.

To kick off the tours, attendees will board buses Friday morning at Huntsville’s Von Braun Center and take their choice of five excursions. Participants of the Green Tour will be responsible for their own transportation.

Saturday will be a full day for conference attendees.

Morning seminars will be loaded with information farmers can take back and use on their farms. Seminar topics include state and federal agricultural programs; biofuels and fertilizer prices; national environmental issues; emergency preparedness for natural disasters; forage variety trials; marketing agricultural products; immigration and rural road restrictions.

Saturday’s sessions include two hours of continuing education unit credit for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.

Also scheduled for Saturday morning are the preliminaries for the Young Farmers’ Discussion Meet and Excellence in Agriculture programs. Winners from both programs will be announced during Saturday’s closing banquet.

Saturday also spotlights the Women’s Leadership Division’s annual quilt, handbag and tablescapes contests. Contestants who previously won their county contests are eligible to participate. Winners will be announced during the women’s luncheon.

For more information about the Commodity Producers Conference, contact Carla Hornady at [email protected], or call (334) 613-4735.