19th Annual MonDak Pulse Day Scheduled for Feb. 7th in Williston

The 19th Annual MonDak Pulse Day will take place at the Area Recreation Center (ARC) in Williston, North Dakota on Thursday, February 7th. Registration for the event will begin at 8:30 am CST, and Speaker Presentations will start at 9:00 am CST. There will be a registration fee of $20 per person, payable at the door.

The MonDak Pulse Day is a local area program that provides the latest information on production, marketing, and utilization of pulse crops. For the past 18 years, Pulse Day has continued to be a successful program; especially because of the increasing pulse crop acres in western North Dakota and eastern Montana," explained Clair Keene, NDSU Extension Specialist/Cropping Systems at the Williston Research Extension Center (WREC).

The program will feature many speakers: Michael Wunsch, North Dakota State University (NDSU) Plant Pathologist at the Carrington Research Center, will speak on Ascochyta Management. Following this presentation, Clair Keene will discuss Intercropping Chickpeas and Flax for managing Ascochyta. Continuing with the chickpea topic, there will be a grower panel where attendees can ask questions of farmers experienced in chickpea production.

Before lunch, NDSU Extension Plant Pathologist, Sam Markell, will discuss Fungicide Resistance Management. This is an important topic given the growing incidence of fungicide resistant-pathogens in a variety of crops. After lunch, Brian Gion, marketing director from the Northern Pulse Growers Association (NPGA), will give a brief NPGA update. Following the NPGA update Eric Bartsch, General Manager at AGT Foods, will present an update on Pulse Markets.

The afternoon will continue with Audrey Kalil, WREC Plant Pathologist, presenting her work with the Northwest North Dakota Pulse Disease Survey. Then Brian Jenks from the NDSU North Central Research and Extension Center in Minot will discuss Weed Management and Palmer Amaranth (a relatively new and aggressive problematic weed to North Dakota). Just in 2018, Palmer Amaranth was first confirmed in North Dakota. The program will close with Brett Allen from the USDA-ARS station in Sidney presenting results from his long-term studies looking at the effect of crop rotation length on pulse yield.

NPGA members and other vendors will be present at an expanded trade show that will be held in conjunction with Pulse Day with two dozen exhibitors expected for the show. There will also be door prize drawings held throughout the day, and Pesticide Applicator credits and CCA CEUs will be available.

MonDak Pulse Day is open to the public and is organized by MSU & NDSU Extension in northeastern Montana and northwestern North Dakota with the program annually rotating between Montana and North Dakota. "The goal of MonDak Pulse Day is to increase local growers' knowledge of current research and information dealing with pulses," said Keene. For more information on Pulse Day 2019, please contact your MSU/NDSU County Extension Office or Clair Keene at the Williston Research Extension Center 701-774-4315.