The University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Extension Center will partner with the Nebraska Dry Bean Growers Association on August 20 to host the annual Panhandle Agricultural Research and Technology Tour (PARTT). The in-person event will be conducted with social distancing and other precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The 2020 event will highlight up-to-date research on dry beans, corn, sugarbeets, and alternative crops. Entry is free.

PARTT will include tours of crop research plots; lunch; afternoon presentations on timely topics under the main tent; and a chance to see new ag technology. Anybody who can’t come for the entire day is free to come for any part of the event and stay as long as they can.

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. at the Panhandle Center, 4502 Avenue I. At 9 a.m., speakers will address the group. The tentative speaker list includes Mike Boehm, Vice President and Vice Chancellor of UNL’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (schedule allowing). Plot tours begin at 9:30 a.m. and last until lunch. Trailers will take visitors on the plot tours. Each stop will last about 25 minutes.

A number of precautions will be in place to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus during PARTT. The Panhandle Center has received a permit from Panhandle Public Health District for the event. Procedures and protection methods include:

• registration procedures that will not require visitors to touch pens;
• spacing of seats on tour trailers and within tents at each stop in the field;
• additional transportation if necessary to provide distancing for attendees;
• masks available to anybody who needs them;
• and hand sanitizer stations at several locations.

Public announcements during the event will remind visitors of procedures that will protect their health, according to Bijesh Maharjan, organizational chairperson.

Tour topics include:

• Potential UNL Dry Bean Breeding Line Releases (Carlos Urrea, Dry Bean Breeding Specialist)
• Research Update on Irrigation Programs (Xin Qiao, Water and Irrigation Management Specialist)
• Entomology in Bean-Wheat Relay Cropping System (Jeffrey Bradshaw, Entomologist)
• How to Control Palmer Amaranth in Dry Beans without Reflex (Nevin Lawrence, Integrated Weed Management Specialist)
• Metamitron: A New Herbicide in Sugarbeet? (Nevin Lawrence, Integrated Weed Management Specialist)
• Mint in the Nebraska Panhandle (Dipak Santra, Alternative Crops Breeding Specialist)
• Soil and Nutrient Management in Sugar Beet and Dry Bean (Bijesh Maharjan, Soil and Nutrient Management Specialist)
• Pathology in Sunflower and New Pulse Crops (Bob Harveson, Plant Pathologist)

The free noon lunch will be individually boxed, also to prevent the spread of COVID. After lunch several presentations until 2 p.m. under the tent will include these topics and speakers:

• Ag Economics Update (Jessica Groskopf, Ag Economist)
• Tour of Dry Bean Variety Plots (Carlos Urrea, Dry Edible Bean Breeding Specialist)

In addition to the in-person field day, Panhandle Center faculty and staff are also developing online content that will complement PARTT 2020. Look for the opportunity to engage with researchers online later this year through novel, on-demand and live-streaming content. So, if you miss PARTT, you will not have to miss out.

For more information contact event chair Bijesh Maharjan, Soil Nutrient and Management Specialist at 308-632-1372 or bmharjan@unl.edu.