The Carrington REC will host our 58^th Annual Field Day on July 18.  We gather at 9:00 a.m. in the main yard for refreshments and a welcome from Center Director Blaine Schatz and Dr. Ken Grafton, VP for Agriculture, Dean and Director of the NDSU Ag Experiment Station.  Tour wagons leave the yard at 9:30 a.m.

Participants will choose from four tours in the morning:

• Crop Variety and Research Review: Review cultivars of spring wheat, dry beans and soybeans. Research project updates addressing spring wheat, corn, soybean, dry bean, canola and carinata.

• Livestock Production: We’ve had our eye on rye: rye silage for feedlot cattle, double cropping rye with barley as forage, and swath grazing millet after rye harvest. Additional topics will include the NDSU Extension Service’s corn silage sampling project, creep feeding drylot cow/calf pairs, feed additives that enhance rumen fermentation, and a demonstration to determine adequate feed mixing time.

• Organic Research and Education: A focus on oats includes variety development, production practices, research reviews, growing forage oats and marketing oats in local markets. Other topics include a chef’s perspective of local and organic grain use and cereal grains for local craft use.

• Northern Hardy Fruit Project: A walking tour of the orchard and an on-site discussion about native pollinators in the orchard. 

A complimentary noon meal will be served and afternoon programs continue at 1:00 p.m.

Afternoon events include (choose one): 

• Production Systems/Plant Nutrition/New Technology: A rolling tour of practical applications for UAVs, soybean weed management traits, rye cover crop for soybean and dry bean, industrial hemp, sensor-based N for wheat and corn, P impact on wheat varieties, and integrating cover crops and beef production.

• Soil Health Workshop: This indoor workshop will focus on organic systems with topics including livestock, cover crops, no-till, weed ecology, NRCS, and field and garden production effects on soil health.

• Pulse Crop Tour - Improving Pest Management: Weed and insect management recommendations, disease research, root diseases in field peas and lentils, improving fungicide deposition, management of ascochyta in chickpea, and foliar disease control in field pea and lentil.

Other:

• Forty species of northern hardy trees and shrubs are available for inspection year-round at the CREC Arboretum. Self-guided walking maps are available.
• The CREC’s weed arboretum contains about 60 weeds arranged in groups including North Dakota noxious weeds, perennials, biennials, annual or winter annual grasses, annual broadleaves and winter annual broadleaves, all identified with labels.

Our annual Field Days are free and open to the public.  No registration is required. The Carrington Research Extension Center is located 3.5 miles north of Carrington on Highway 281. Call 701-652-2951 with questions.