Hundreds gather for annual Delta Center Field Day

Joe Henggeler, irrigation scientist, discusses irrigation scheduling with a group participating in a research tour during Delta Center Field Day Thursday, Sept. 2. [Click to enlarge]

Hundreds of farmers, agribusiness operators and others flocked to the Missouri Delta Research Center's Lee Farm southeast of Portageville Thursday.

The occasion was the 43rd Annual Delta Center Field Day. And, it was a far-cry from last year's event when rain forced cancellation of the field tours and everything was crowded into the Rhone Exhibit Hall.

The popular field day event allows farmers to learn new farming techniques, to hear of scientific advances in crop production, weed control and to learn of new services that increase efficiency and production in their farming operations.

"They are able to see some of things being done by our research staff they are going to be able to apply to their own farms during the coming year," Dr. Ray Nabors, coordinator of the field tour events, noted.

The field tours utilize color-coded wagons which left the Rhone Exhibit Hall, where the field day activities are headquartered, every half-hour until around mid-afternoon.

The tours dealt with the latest research in cotton (blue tour), soybean (red tour) and rice (white tour) production, irrigation (green tour) and weed control (yellow tour).

Farmers taking the soybean tour learned of new developments in soybean breeding, including research into new flood-resistant varieties. Grover Shannon, Delta Center soybean breeder, is in the second year of a study in which soybean varieties are subjected to flooding on different soils and at different growth stages. Too much water on soybeans often is worse than not having enough, Shannon said. "The idea is to breed soybeans that can tolerate water."

Joe Henggeler, irrigation scientist at the Delta Center, told farmers that those who use an irrigation scheduling program make about $30 to $35 per acre more than those irrigating without a scheduling program.

Henggeler said he has just three rules for irrigation management: use irrigation scheduling, have center pivots tested and use fertigation to apply late season nitrogen to corn.

Farmers making the weed tour were told of a strange new weed creeping out of ditches into fields. Scouring rush, a dark green, "cane looking", hollow weed, seems to linked to drainage ditches and fortunately doesn't spread far into fields. Control methods have had more failures than successes and no control measures have been permanent.

Weed specialist Dr. Andy Kendig said it appears Southeast Missouri has been infested with glyphosate-resistant mare's tail, a problem which has afflicted west Tennessee the past two years.

If all other measures fail, or are too late, Kendig said there is one final option available to Southeast Missouri farmers--they can resort to old-fashioned tillage.

At the Rhone Exhibit Hall those attending Field Day were able to visit numerous farm and home exhibits of services and products available and to speak with representatives of the various entities involved, look over farm machinery exhibits as well as visiting with friends, neighbors and University staff members.