Among other topics, the Aug. 27 field day at the University of Missouri Hundley-Whaley Center will look at how the unusual spring affected northwestern Missouri.
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Tour wagons will take visitors to hear MU Extension specialists speak on herbicides and fungicides; forages and native plants; nutrient management; integrated pest management; weather observation; and new seed technologies, said Bruce Burdick, superintendent of the Hundley-Whaley Center in Albany.
The newest topics this year will be the new herbicide-resistant soybeans, he said. "We’ll also highlight soybean fungicides. We’ve got corn fungicides and micronutrient tank mixes."
Wayne Flanary, MU agronomist in Holt County, will talk on replacing nitrogen fertilizer with pasture legumes. "You just plant the legume into pasture; it fixes nitrogen in nodules and you don’t have to put on a separate treatment," Burdick said.
Jim Humphrey, extension livestock specialist in Andrew County, will talk about an innovative tool for measuring forage yield. "You use this instrument to measure yield by the height," Burdick said. "It takes a lot of the guesswork out of it. Instead of just going out and looking at the field, you can get a quantitative measurement."
Peter Scharf, extension nutrient management specialist, will speak on nitrogen loss in corn in northwestern Missouri. "It was very much of a problem this season. We had a tremendous loss of nitrogen from heavy early rains," Burdick said.
Wayne Bailey, extension entomologist, will show techniques for in-field measurements of integrated pest management and discuss crop pest issues.
"Right now, there’s an emerging problem here with soybean aphids coming on. It looks like populations are building," Burdick said.
Pat Guinan, extension climatologist, will speak on the benefits of real-time weather observation. In 2005, the MU Commercial Agriculture Program upgraded its weather station at the Hundley-Whaley Center to real-time status. The new system updates weather data every five minutes, instead of providing only a summary of the day before.
The field day is free and open to the public. Tours start at 9 a.m. and last one hour. The day concludes with a free lunch at noon. The center is at the intersection of Bethany and Birch streets in Albany. For driving directions, see http://aes.missouri.edu/hundwhal/hwdir.stm.