Breakthroughs in organic agriculture is this year’s focus for the 7th annual High Plains Organic Conference Thursday-Friday, Feb. 27-28, at the Pathfinder building, Laramie County Community College, Cheyenne.

Attendees can register for one or both days. Registration for day one is $45 and $35 for day two, or $65 for both days. Lunch is provided on day one. For more information and registration, visit www.highplainsorganic.org.

Registration in person begins 8:30 a.m. Thursday, and at 9 a.m. Steve Ela of Ela Family Farms in Hotchkiss, Colo., will address the state of organic agriculture. Poster lightning talks and trade show vendor time follows.

Beginning at 10:30 a.m., attendees can choose from four track options in alternative crops, production practices, dryland wheat or soils. There will be two hour-long sessions before lunch in which participants can meet the researchers. The organic lunch is provided.

Two more hour sessions follow lunch then a keynote by Diane Scott, national soil health specialist for the soil health division in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Scott is also the author of Recommended Soil Health Indicators and Associated Laboratory Procedures.

There is a 6 p.m. social Thursday at Accomplice Beer Company in downtown Cheyenne.

Day two begins at 8 a.m. with coffee and registration. There will be three tack options from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in composting, marketing and organic certification.

Jay Norton, a conference founder and University of Wyoming Extension soils specialist, will provide closing remarks.