Ag Day Set at North Plains Research Field, near Etter

Writer:  Pam Dillard (806) 677-5600; p-dillard@tamu.edu
Contact: Thomas Marek (806) 677-5600; t-marek@tamu.edu

ETTER – Area producers, crop consultants and anyone interested in learning more about new crop varieties tailored to the Panhandle and northern South Plains should attend the Aug. 7 Ag Day at the North Plains Research Field (NPRF) north of Dumas, a unit of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.

Registration begins with refreshments at 8:30 a.m. The program will start with the first tour stop at 9 a.m. Ag Day speakers will also cover insect management strategies and sound farming practices.

“We want to update area growers on some new innovations in our agricultural research, especially with current drought conditions,” said Thomas Marek, NPRF station superintendent and ag engineer.

The opening tour stop will feature Brent Auvermann, Experiment Station environmental systems engineer at Texas A&M’s Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Amarillo. He will discuss his manure lysimeter research.

The next tour stop will feature Dennis Pietsch, research associate with the Texas A&M University Crop Testing Laboratory at College Station, with a review of current sorghum trials underway at Etter.  Dave Venhaus, master of science graduate student at West Texas A&M University, and John Sweeten, Experiment Station research director at the Amarillo Center, will discuss and compare composted and raw manure applications as cropland fertilizer.

Around 9:50 a.m., Auvermann will present an overview of his ongoing carbon sequestration assessment, and Erica Cox, NPRF station research assistant, will discuss cotton assessments.

Wenwei Xu, Texas A&M and Texas Tech corn breeder, will review his variety trials at the fourth tour stop. Marek will then cover evapotranspiration weather stations and provide an irrigation pivot update.

Calvin Trostle, Texas Cooperative Extension agronomist at Lubbock , will discuss his current work with guar and sunflowers. Robert Bowling, Extension integrated pest management agent, will follow with an area insecticide update.

Brent Bean, Extension agronomist at the Amarillo Center will review his chemical drift study, and discuss his current work with soybean fertilizers. Greta Schuster, West Texas A&M plant pathologist, will  discuss her potato variety research and her corn aflatoxin study.

A lunch break is scheduled at 11:45 a.m. The meal is sponsored by the North Plains Water District.

At 1 p.m. participants will depart from the NPRF station for a multi-county research tour of insect plot demonstrations led by Bowling and Robert Harris, Moore County Extension agriculture agent. Stops on this tour will highlight Extension field demonstrations involving soybean stem borer, greenbugs in grain sorghum, and the Banks grass mite.

For more information, contact Thomas Marek or John Sweeten in Amarillo at (806) 677-5600.