Greetings!  We invite you to attend the Carrington Research Extension Center’s Annual Field Day on Tuesday, July 15.

CREC Field Day is our opportunity to ‘show off’ all the great things that are happening here.  While the Center is always open for guests, we work especially hard during the week prior to Field Day to make certain everything is in good order.

The day begins with a welcome and refreshments at 9 a.m.  Tours will leave the yard promptly at 9:30 a.m.  We are expecting larger crowds than usual this year, so please plan to come early.

The morning tours will run concurrently and include an agronomy tour, livestock tour, organic/sustainable agriculture tour and a Northern Hardy fruit and berry tour.

The agronomy tour will focus on a variety review of spring wheat, barley variety review and industry changes, corn crop development and N fertilizer recommendations, soybean production and management updates, weed management strategies in soybean, sclerotinia in dry bean and soybean, and sulfur fertility research in corn.  The organic/sustainable agriculture tour will include discussions of the University of Manitoba organic wheat breeding program, organic oat production, grants and programs from North Central Region SARE, sustainability of buckwheat varieties, cow pea varieties, field pea varieties for organic systems, ancient grains project update, organic dry bean breeding, and using winter rye as a weed suppression crop.  The Northern Hardy fruit tour will include an overview of all the fruits in the orchard and a presentation by University of Saskatchewan domestic fruits researcher Dr. Bob Bors.  The livestock tour will include discussions of cow herd profitability, reducing breeding herd costs, forage resource management, using corn stover in drylot cow production, using manure as a resource, producer feedout results of the Dakota Feeder Calf Show, and feedlot research with industrial beets, corn, distillers grains and unmanned aerial systems.

Morning tours will be followed by a noon lunch and an afternoon tour focusing on the research project “UAS Applications to Agriculture.”  This tour will include a review of the project, review and discussions of the imagery data collected, displays of the UAVs used in the project and commentary from UND Flight Operations collaborators, private partners, and the Northern Plains UAS Test Site.

Field Day will be held on July 15, come rain or come shine, but some of the presentations may be moved indoors if the weather dictates.  Of course, all of the presentations and the noon meal are free and open to the public, and you are welcome to attend as much or as little of the day’s activities as you desire.

We hope you will join us on July 15.  If you choose to visit us at any other time of the year, please adhere to these guidelines to ensure your safety and preserve our research.  (1) Check in at the Main Office in case there are any projects that wouldn’t be safe for you or so that you don’t accidentally interrupt our work or a scheduled tour.  (2) Please stay in your vehicle.  (3)  Watch where you drive.  Our trails can be soft after rain, and some plots are planted very close to trails.  (4) Please don’t disturb anything or take anything.   Remember, we are conducting research and need to monitor what’s goes in, on, and out of our plots.

Please call us with questions at 701-652-2951.  We will find an expert to help you. 

Linda Schuster
Administrative Secretary