Organic crop production and sustainable agriculture are the focus of a tour scheduled during the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center's annual field tours July 14.
This is the center's fourth annual organic/sustainable agriculture tour and the 11th year since an organic field was established at the center.
The organic/sustainable agriculture program will begin at 9 a.m. Steve Zwinger, research specialist at the center and a member of the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society Farmer Breeder Club, will lead the tour.
Speakers include Byron Lannoye, general manager for Pulse USA; Emily Paul, sales representative for Pulse USA; Zwinger; Frank Kutka, Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society Farm Breeding Club; Chiwon Lee, professor of greenhouse production, vegetable culture and breeding; Mike McMullen, professor of oat breeding and genetics; Tom Rabaey, an agronomist at General Mills; and Edd Goerger, executive director of the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society.
Topics include: organic field pea variety development; research on ancient grains and fingerling potato variety trials; einkorn accession evaluation and development and developing cow pea varieties for northern climates; multistate collaborative vegetable research on cucumbers, onions and green beans; oat breeding and variety performance results; improving organic oat production research; and radishes for cover crops.
Agronomy, northern-hardy fruit and livestock tours also will be held in the morning. The tours will depart at 9:30 and run until noon. An afternoon program on the use of unmanned aerial systems in agriculture will start at 1:30 p.m. The field day event also includes an open house and tours of the new agronomy laboratory.
For more information about the organic/sustainable agriculture program, contact Zwinger or Karl Hoppe at 701-652-2951 or email Zwinger at steve.zwinger@ndsu.edu or Hoppe at karl.hoppe@ndsu.edu.
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