The University of Nebraska-Lincoln High Plains Ag Lab Field Day, scheduled for June 19, will highlight UNL research on dryland crop breeding and production. Major focus will be on winter wheat breeding and its insects and diseases. Another focus will be on alternative crops (oil seed and field pea) production and use.

Registration begins at 8 a.m. at the High Plains Ag Lab shop. Administrative updates will be provided by Keith Rexroth, chair of the HPAL Advisory Board; Tom Nightingale, HPAL farm manager; and Jack Whittier, new director of the UNL Panhandle Research and Extension Center.

Following the field tours, lunch will be served at noon and at 1:30 p.m. the new HPAL office and research facility will be dedicated.

Tour topics and speakers include:

• Oil seed crops research (Dipak Santra, UNL alternative crops breeding specialist)
• Wheat variety testing (Stephen Baenziger, UNL crop breeder)
• Update on insect resistance research in dryland crops (Jeff Bradshaw, UNL entomologist)
• Update on winter wheat diseases (Stephen Wegulo, UNL plant pathologist)
• Evaluating the risk of alternative over-summering hosts (Justin McMechan, UNL graduate student)
• Timing of virus infection and impact of wheat planting date and variety selection (Everlyne Wosula, post-doct research associate, UNL)
• Field pea as a new alternative crop (Dipak Santra, UNL alternative crops specialist)
• Field pea as potential supplemental feed (Jack Whittier, UNL Panhandle REC director)
• Weed management in field pea (Rob Higgins, UNL HPAL ag research technician)
• Soil research (Gary Hergert, UNL extension soil scientist)

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.

Morning refreshment will be sponsored by Points West Bank, and refreshments during the tour will be sponsored by Wheat Belt Public Power District.