NOVELTY, Mo.– After a long, wet planting season this spring, researchers will report their results at a field day, Aug. 6, at the Greenley Research Center in Knox County.
“On the crop tour, we will emphasize the effects of water and nitrogen,” says Kelly Nelson, research agronomist at the University of Missouri farm.
“The most dramatic difference in corn growth will be in plots purposely flooded for one day, three days or seven days,” Nelson says. By mid-July corn flooded just one day is head-high, but corn flooded for a week is only knee-high.
Other topics include drones used in farming, burn-down treatments of herbicide-resistant weeds, and breeding and grazing beef cows.
After a delayed planting season, farmers have questions about what happens to nitrogen fertilizer, Kelly says. He has results from nitrogen applied in the fall, early pre-plant and at planting.
It’s traditional to have three wagon tours going at once, says Randall Smoot, superintendent of the research farm, a part of the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, Columbia.
Crops, pest management and beef and forage tours will have three or more stops each.
Those who arrive early can take all three tours before they end at noon, Smoot says. To encourage an early start and beat the heat, breakfast is served at 7 a.m. Tours start at 8 a.m. A free lunch will be served.
Improved results from timed artificial insemination in beef herds will be reported. MU beef researcher Jordan Thomas used new protocols to breed 1,000 cows and 1,000 heifers this spring.
The largest MU breeding trial ever conducted shows how to get more females bred at the start of the breeding season. Early calving brings more uniform calf crops from proven sires.
Zac Erwin, regional MU Extension livestock specialist, Monticello, Mo., will show new ways to strip graze for improved forage use.
Justin Sexten, MU beef nutritionist, Columbia, will report research on lowering hay wasted in winter feeding.
On the pest tour, Reid Smeda, MU weed scientist, will report ways to cope with marestail, an herbicide-resistant weed in corn and soybeans. He has test plots at Novelty and Columbia.
Mark Bernards from Western Illinois University will tell of micronutrients and herbicide management systems.
Leah Sandler, MU graduate student, will tell about tillage radishes, a winter cover crop used to improve soil organic matter. She’ll talk about their impact on corn in the 2012 drought.
A new feature will be the potential of drones for crop management, such as pest scouting, by Kent Shannon, MU agricultural engineer. He will tell how laws may restrict their use.
The field day is free. The Lee Greenley Jr., Memorial Research Center is just east of Novelty, Mo., and north of Highway 156. Visitors using Highway 156 from the west must find an alternative route. The bridge at Salt River is closed.
Meals and refreshments are provided by area agribusinesses. They will set up displays at the lunch site in the historic Greenley barn.
The farm, given by Hortense Greenley, is in a statewide network of MU farms providing research results. All are part of the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station. Greenley Center holds the first of the late-summer field days.
Read more http://extension.missouri.edu/news/DisplayStory.aspx?N=1907
