July 8, 2005

North Central Research Extension Center Field Day Set For July 20

The annual Field Day at North Dakota State University's North Central Research Extension Center in Minot is scheduled for Wednesday, July 20.

Field Day, which is open to the public and free of charge, will run from 9 a.m. until about 3 p.m.

The event will start with participants getting an opportunity to meet and interact with D.C. Coston, NDSU’s newly named vice president for agriculture and university Extension. Ken Grafton, North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station director, will follow Coston with an update on Experiment Station activities.

Vern Hofman, an associate professor in the NDSU Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering Department, will present information on grain drying and aeration, fan selection, static pressures, the effect of heat applied to airflow and related topics on proper grain storage.

Also during the morning, plant breeders will discuss new varieties that NDSU has developed and released, and new varieties from other public and private breeding programs. These include several spring wheat, specialty wheat, durum, barley and oat varieties. Dale Williams, NDSU seedstocks director, will address foundation seedstock updates.

A pest diagnostic clinic will be available throughout the day to help people identify weed, disease or insect problems. Plant samples or insect specimens are welcome.

Lunch will be served at noon. A crop production tour will follow at 1 p.m. The speakers and their topics are:

• Jim Heckman, director of the First District Health Unit in Minot - the mosquito surveillance program and how to reduce the risk of contracting West Nile virus
• Burton Johnson, NDSU agronomist and alternative crop specialist – the future of new alternative crops for north-central and western North Dakota
• Dave Franzen, NDSU soil scientist – updates on protein enhancement research in wheat, and sulfur and zinc deficiency in soils
• Kirk Howatt, NDSU weed scientist - herbicide issues in small grains
• Marcia McMullen, NDSU plant pathologist – small-grain disease problems, such as leaf rust, tan spot and scab
• Carl Bradley, NDSU plant pathologist - controlling sunflower diseases and an update on the threat of soybean rust in North Dakota

For more information about Field Day, contact Jan Knodel, area NDSU Extension Service crop protection specialist, at (701) 857-7682 or jknodel@ndsuext.nodak.edu.

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Source: Jan Knodel, (701) 857-7682, jknodel@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Ellen Crawford, (701) 231-5391, ecrawfor@ndsuext.nodak.edu

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