The University of Nebraska-Lincoln High Plains Ag Lab Field Day, scheduled for Thursday, June 21, will highlight UNL research on dryland crops, especially field pea and winter wheat, as well as grazing and forages.

This year’s field day will feature a two-part tour, with the earlier tour stops focusing on field peas and grazing/forage research, and the later tour focusing on wheat research. Attendees can attend either or both tours without missing any topics. The entire tour will conclude by mid-day.

For the field peas/grazing tour, registration, coffee and rolls and welcome is scheduled for 7:45 a.m. and the tour trailer departs at 8:30 a.m.

For those who want to attend only the wheat tour, registration, rolls and welcome start at 8:45 a.m. and the tour trailer departs at 9:30 a.m. The pea and grazing tour will join up with the wheat tour at this point. The remainder of the morning’s stops will focus on wheat, ending with the annual wheat variety plots tour at 10:45 a.m. The day’s events will conclude with lunch.

Tour Topics and Speakers

Field Peas and Grazing Plot Tour (8:30 a.m.)

• Field Pea Variety Tour with Dipak Santra, Nebraska Extension alternative crops breeding specialist
• Field Pea Fertility with Bijesh Maharjan, Nebraska Extension soil and nutrition management specialist
• Pea Populations and Planting Dates with Cody Creech, Nebraska Extension dryland cropping systems specialist, and Samuel Koeshall, UNL graduate research assistant
• Oat-Pea Mixtures and Grazing with Mitch Stephenson, Nebraska Extension range and forage management specialist, and Nathan Pflueger, UNL graduate student

Wheat Tour (9:30 a.m.)

• CoAxium Wheat Production System and Aggressor Herbicide with Cody Creech, Nebraska Extension Dryland Cropping Systems Specialist, and Chad Shelton, Albaugh, LLC
• Dispersal of Wheat Curl Mite and Spread of Viruses into Wheat with Gary Hein, director, UNL Doctor of Plant Health Program, and Lindsay Overmeyer, graduate student
• Wheat Stem Sawfly Emergence in 2018 with Jeff Bradshaw, Nebraska Extension entomologist, and Bethany Bergstrom, graduate student
• Wheat Variety Tour with Stephen Baenziger, wheat breeding specialist

After Lunch

• On-Farm Research with Karen DeBoer, Extension Educator

Directions

To get to the High Plains Ag Lab office, take U.S. 385 to the Huntsman Elevator (6 miles north of Sidney or 7 miles south of Gurley), then drive about 2 miles west, then ½ mile north. The shop is about one-half mile east of the office.