No Till Notes: 'PNTP Field Days'

The Panhandle No-till Partnership will host a series of field days Tuesday through Friday this week. These field days will focus on continuous no-till crop production practices on dry land and irrigated acres and integrating livestock into a no till cropping and forage production system.

The field days will be an educational showing of how no-till crop and forage production can improve soil health and conserve groundwater. We’ll also tour the UNL High Plains Ag Lab to meet and greet Cody Creech, UNL Panhandle and Extension Center dry land cropping systems specialist. Dipak Santra will give us a tour of his pea variety trials at the HPAL. These field days are designed to be very informal and educational and everyone interested in no-till production practices is encouraged to attend.

The following is a list of time and places for each field day:

• Tuesday: Watson Brother’s farm field day will begin at 9 a.m. Watson Brother’s farm is located at 1561 County Road 61, Alliance. From Highway 87 approximately 10 miles north of Alliance turn west on Jefferson Road and travel 2 miles to County Road 61 and one half mile north. From Highway 385 turn east on Jefferson Road on the north side of Simplot and travel 4 miles east to County Road 61 and one half mile north. Participants will spend the morning looking at dry land cropping rotation of winter wheat, corn, and field peas. We will look at UNL’s pea variety trial on our farm and at irrigated crop rotation of winter wheat, dry edible beans, corn, and field peas.

• Wednesday: Banner County Field Day at the Jack Revelle and Bob Gifford farm beginning at 2 p.m. We will meet along Highway 71 one mile south of the Highway 71 and County Road 34 junction, approximately 17 miles south of Gering,. This field day will focus on dry land and irrigated no till crop production. Crops grown on the farm will include field peas, dry edible beans, corn, and winter wheat.

• Thursday: Mark Betson Farm field day will begin at 9 a.m. The tour will begin on Mark’s farm, located along Highway 20 between Chadron and Crawford. Directions to the field day are to turn south at the Whitney junction along Highway 20 and drive five miles south. We will meet at a field along the county road. This field day will focus on no-till dry land crop production and integrating forages and livestock grazing into this no-till system.

• Friday: UNL High Plains Ag Lab located at 3257 Road 109, Sidney. This field day will begin at 9 a.m. This field day will give us the opportunity to tour the High Plains Ag Lab and meet Creech, UNL dry land cropping systems specialist. Santra will show us his pea variety trial at the HPAL. Following the tour of the research farm we will tour Mark and Pat Ernest’s farm to look at their no till crop production farm located near the Ag lab.

For further information on these field days, contact Mark Watson at (308) 760-5259.