NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
July 6, 2000
Field crop varieties and soil and water management will be highlights of agronomy tours at the annual North Dakota State University Carrington Research Extension Center Field Day scheduled for Wednesday, July 19.
A combination of tours and demonstrations on crops and livestock will be conducted during morning and afternoon sessions. The morning sessions will begin at 9:00 a.m. with tours departing at 9:30. The afternoon session of different tours will begin at 1:00 p.m. A sponsored noon lunch will be served.
The morning session will offer two agronomy tour options. One tour will focus on field crop varieties. The crop variety tour will provide an opportunity to hear plant breeders and agronomists discuss the many new varieties that have been developed and released in recent years. Spring wheat, durum and barley are examples of crops where new releases have resulted in significant improvements in varieties available to growers.
A series of discussions on soil and water management factors will be featured on the other morning agronomy tour. Participants will learn how soil characteristics influence crop management, water and nutrient use. This tour will also provide a review of the center’s cropping system trials and introduce growers to the irrigation research program, which includes water and nitrogen management for potatoes.
The afternoon agronomy program will allow participants to attend two of three tour offerings. These include weed management, disease/insect management and crop management. These tours will be conducted from 1:00 to 3:45 p.m. by NDSU Extension crop specialists and research agronomists.
Weed management recommendations and issues will be discussed for corn, small grain, oilseed crops (canola, flax, and sunflower) and grain legumes (soybean, dry bean, and field pea). An emphasis in this tour’s discussion will be herbicide-tolerant crops and difficult-to-control weeds, including resistant weeds.
The disease and insect management session will include the following topics: small grain disease (scab, leaf spots etc.) management, sclerotinia (white mold) and other broadleaf crop diseases, along with a review of the growing season’s insect concerns.
The crop management tour will focus on discussions of optimum field crop densities (populations and row spacings), dormant-planted crops for this fall and the diagnosis of crop production problems.
The field day is open to the public. The Carrington Center is located 3.5 miles north of Carrington on Highway 281. For more information or assistance please call (701) 652-2951.
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NDSU Agriculture Communication
Source: Blaine Schatz (701) 652-2951
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629