NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

November 19, 1998

Irrigation Workshop Set for Dec. 9 in Mandan

An irrigation workshop will be held from 9 a.m. CST to about 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 9, at the Seven Seas Motel in Mandan, with registration beginning at 8 a.m. The workshop is sponsored by the Missouri Slope Irrigation Development Association and the North Dakota State University Extension Service. An irrigation equipment exposition will coincide with the workshop.

"If you are an irrigator or just interested in irrigation and want to learn more about modern irrigation techniques, then plan to attend," says Tom Scherer, extension water quality specialist at NDSU.

There currently are more than 235,000 irrigated acres in North Dakota. Interest in using irrigation for crop diversification has been high ever since the drought years in the late 1980s. Since 1990, North Dakota has been gaining about 6,000 acres of irrigated land each year.

"This trend is expected to continue and may even increase," Scherer says. "Irrigated potatoes and alfalfa have been fueling the increase, but interest in other high-value crops is also high. The irrigation potential of using the Missouri River is being investigated at several locations along the Missouri River corridor."

The workshop will feature concurrent sessions in the morning. The morning session for practicing irrigators will have presentations dealing with remote sensing, site-specific farming, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and genetically modified crops.

The other morning session is for potential irrigators and will focus on the fundamentals of getting into irrigation. It will address topics such as how to determine if you have irrigable soils, the quantity and quality of the water supply needed for successful irrigation, obtaining a water permit, the cost of irrigation development, and basic irrigation water management.

The afternoon session is open to all attendees and will feature presentations on irrigation equipment dealing with pipelines and center pivots and irrigated high-value crop initiatives, an update on the Central Dakota Irrigation District, and a discussion about forming a North Dakota irrigators association.

The $30 registration fee is payable at the door, and it includes a 1999 membership in the Missouri Slope Irrigation Development Association, lunch and break refreshments. Application has been made for Certified Crop Advisor Continuing Education Units (CEU's), and the number of CEU's will be announced before each session. The 1999 Crop Production Guide will also on sale.

More details about the workshop are available from county extension offices or by contacting the NDSU agricultural and biosystems engineering department at (701) 231-7238.

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Source: Thomas Scherer (701) 231-7239

Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136