No plans for July 21? Join us for Crops and Soils Day at the NWROC

As you may have also noticed, after covid-19 vaccinations commenced and restrictions on gathering began to lift, people seem to be very glad to be around other people, lingering to chat just a little bit longer than they had before our lives were upended. Last year's UMN Northwest Research & Outreach Center (NWROC) Crop & Soils Day in-person event was cancelled and researchers recorded short YouTube videos to keep folks updated on the latest research.

In 2021, folks at the NWROC are very excited to again welcome members of the public to an in-person Crops & Soils Day program on July 21, 2021! For those that have attended one of these events in the past, registration will take place and buses will leave for tours from a different location: NWROC's maintenance/farm operations building located just south of county highway 71 across from the UMC campus. Parking will be just across the street from the NWROC offices where the Youngquist Auditorium is located. 

The morning tour will cover small grains, soybean and industrial hemp and the afternoon tour will focus on sugar beets. Registration is at 7:30 am, with buses leaving at 8 am for the morning tours and registration at 12:15 pm with the bus leaving at 12:45 pm for the afternoon tour.   A complimentary noon lunch will be served. Certified crop advisors looking for continuing education units can earn some at this event.

Topics and speakers for the morning session are:

• Performance of NWROC's new subsurface drainage installation | Lindsay Pease
• Over or within the canopy: Sprayer configuration and white mold management | Angie Peltier
• Disease of small grains | Ruth Dill-Macky
• Insect research 2021 | Ian MacRae
• Wheat breeding variety update | Jim Anderson
• Hulless barley: Naked but not afraid | Kevin Smith
• Weed management in small grains | Beverly Durgan
• Breeding drug-free industrial hemp for fiber production in Minnesota and the Dakotas | George Weiblen

Topics and speakers for the afternoon session are:

• Management of major sugarbeet diseases | Ashok Chanda
• Sugarbeet tolerance with Ultra Blazer and S-Metolachlor in sugarbeet | Tom Peters
• Is fall urea an option for sugarbeet production? | Dan Kaiser
• Importance of tank-mixing for managing Cercospora leaf spot of sugarbeet | Austin Lien