EARC Holds Successful Field Day

Each year, the Eastern Agricultural Research Center (EARC) holds a field day in July in order to provide information and updates on a variety of research projects. Many area producers attend this field day to learn about current research, and those who attended were not disappointed in their quest for additional information.

The tour began with a talk on durum wheat presented by EARC Agronomist Dr. Joyce Eckhoff, who discussed her research to produce quality durum varieties. “Durum is the number one favorite food in the world, more popular than meat, pizza, or rice,” Eckhoff remarked during her talk. “There is a place for durum here.”

Eckhoff has also developed solid stem lines that show great promise. “These lines have great quality, and we hope the Europeans will like them as well,” she said.

Dr. Luther Talbot, MSU spring wheat breeder, discussed spring wheat varieties and development. “Wheat originally came from Europe in the late 1800s,” he told the crowd. “It wasn’t very good wheat and made very bad bread. A Canadian breeder discovered the variety that makes good bread, and breeders across the world made crosses with this variety so now good hard red spring wheat is grown worldwide.”

Talbot also pointed out that the wheat stem sawfly, native to this region, adapted to wheat, so U.S researchers got together, collected wheat varieties from around the world, and found an ancient variety from Portugal that had some resistance to sawfly. World breeders used this variety to produce resistant varieties, and now all sawfly resistant wheat carries this gene. He also pointed out that because of the development of new wheat varieties, coupled with improved farming practices, today’s farmers see a 40% increase in yields from the yields their grandparents produced.

Russ Fullmer, Sidney Sugars agriculture manager, discussed the beet crop. Only three growers planted conventional beets this year; the remainder of growers have planted Roundup Ready beets. Sugar prices look promising which may help offset the smaller crop. “World prices are sky-high,” he remarked. “We expect the price will come down but we expect good payments but a smaller crop.”

Dr. Charles Flynn discussed the fusarium trial currently in progress on one of his fields. “If you have fusarium, you need to look at this trial,” he remarked. “Some varieties are completely gone, while others seem to be just fine. If you have a fusarium problem you need to take a look and see which varieties are working.”

Flynn also discussed the new EARC/Extension facility. “We have two 12,000-square foot greenhouses, one for safflower and one for durum, and we have three labs with equipment that provide needed space,” he remarked. “We will certainly need the space, as last year we analyzed 20,000 varieties of safflower and various grains, so we were busy through the winter.”

Dr. Barry Jacobson, MSU-Bozeman Extension pathologist, discussed sugarbeet, safflower and small grain disease control. He talked about fungicides, new treatments, and the importance of timing in controlling diseases.

Bill Iversen, USDA/ARS physical scientist, discussed the soil compaction experiment underway on EARC research land, and Dr Bart Stevens, USDA/ARS agronomist, talked about the long term cropping system study, also underway on the EARC research land. Stevens has one year of research results to date, but expects to have answers to several questions as time passes.

The speaking tour wrapped up with Ben Larson, Safflower Technologies International agronomist, discussing a variety of alternate crops and their potential in the MonDak, and Dr. Jerry Bergman, EARC director, discussed his safflower research.

We sometimes take these annual tours for granted and feel we can learn nothing new from them. However, nothing is further from the truth. Those who attended this year’s tour came away with a wealth of new information.