Purdue News
Purdue News
The free field day also will have some new participants, said Ben Southard, Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service agronomist.
"What we're doing differently this year is inviting middle and high school students and science and agriculture teachers," he said.
The students' tours will start at 9:30 a.m. and end at 1 p.m. Hands-on demonstrations and tours will cover soil texture, erosion, soil color charts and wetlands. Crop-related activities include plant identification, genetics and turf.
Students will visit the diagnostic training center and rainfall simulator soil pits, participate in an on-line computer scavenger hunt, and wrap up with demonstrations about soil sedimentation and the benefits of earthworms.
The field day is not just for educators and students. Other tours will be more traditional, with activities that are of interest to farmers, board of health members and sanitarians.
A nutrient management tour will begin at 10 a.m. Visitors will learn about nitrogen management systems, soil testing, pre-sidedress nitrogen tests and using chlorophyll meters.
A tour on current crop production issues and tips for 1998 and a water quality tour both will begin at 1 p.m. and run through 4 p.m. The water quality tour will cover the issues of urban and agricultural impacts on ground water and surface water quality in Indiana.
The Timely Topics Tour will cover nutrient deficiencies this past growing season, competition, soybean development and replanting, herbicide carryover into 1998, perennial weed problems, and 1997 diseases.
The last event of the day is a forage management tour, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. "This is the first time we'll be doing something in the evening for this field day," Southard said. "We'll be looking at leafhopper damage, pest-resistant alfalfa varieties, fall management decisions, marketing considerations and forage quality considerations. We'll finish with a question-and-answer session."
Registration for the field day begins at 9 a.m. at the Agronomy Research Center, seven miles west of West Lafayette, on U.S. 52. Lunch will be available for a nominal fee.
For more information, contact Southard at (765) 494-4799; e-mail, bsouthard@dept.agry.purdue.edu
Source: Ben Southard, (765) 494-4799; e-mail, bsouthard@dept.agry.purdue.edu
Writer: Azura Domschke, (765) 494-8402; e-mail, news_students@aes.purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
