Crop Tours Highlight Carrington Research Extension Center Field Day on July 14

The North Dakota State University Carrington Research Extension Center annual field day will be held Tuesday, July 14. The event will provide participants with the choice of attending livestock, fruit or crop tours in the morning and a second crop tour in the afternoon.

Two crop tours will be conducted for participants to view research trials and receive production information. Highlighted will be crop variety performance, crop and soil management and opportunities for growing selected alternative crops.

The morning tour will begin at 9:30. The tour will include a review of spring wheat, barley and dry bean cultivars by NDSU plant breeders Mohamed Mergoum, Richard Horsley and Juan Osorno. Also, corn, soybean and alternative crop production issues will be highlighted by NDSU agronomists Joel Ransom, Greg Endres and Burton Johnson. In addition, John Nowatzki, NDSU Extension agricultural engineer, will give a corn planter demonstration that shows corn stands resulting from several different industry planters and the speed of planter operations.

Following a noon lunch, tour participants will be able to attend a second crop tour starting at 1 p.m. Marcia McMullen and Sam Markell, NDSU Extension plant pathologists, will review small- grain disease management strategies and the threat of row crop diseases this season. Richard Zollinger and Kirk Howatt, NDSU weed scientists, will discuss this season's weed management challenges and issues.

During the afternoon tour, Ezra Aberle, Endres, Paul Hendrickson, Yvonne Lawley and Ron Wiederholt, Carrington center agronomists, will highlight research on strip tillage, plant nutrition, cover crops and perennial grasses for cellulosic biofuels.

In addition, two stations will be available for participants to provide samples for water quality testing or crop pest diagnosis. Farmers are encouraged to bring water and plant samples for examination by Roxanne Johnson, NDSU Extension water quality associate, and Kasia Kinzer, NDSU Extension plant pest diagnostician.

For more information, contact the Carrington REC at (701) 652-2951 or check its Web site at http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/carringt/.

NDSU Agriculture Communication