AMARILLO – Four meetings highlighting three primary corn irrigation projects in the North Plains have been scheduled in August by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Texas AgriLife Research and the North Plains Groundwater Conservation District.
“These projects are the epitome of agricultural cooperation as both AgriLife Research and AgriLife Extension collaborate with the local groundwater district to address frontline, pressing needs in production agriculture,” said Nich Kenny, AgriLife Extension irrigation specialist. “We are addressing all ranges of corn irrigation and working to collectively make an impact on the area.”
All meetings will begin at 9 a.m. and are free. The dates and locations are:
Aug. 19: Hutchinson County Corn Irrigation Conference, Morse Community Building, Morse.
Aug. 24: Ochiltree Corn Irrigation Conference, Perryton Expo Center, Perryton.
Aug. 25: Etter Corn Irrigation Field Day, Texas AgriLife Research’s North Plains Research Field, Etter.
Aug. 26: Dalhart Corn Irrigation Conference, Rita Blanca Coliseum, Dalhart.
Each location will include local topics that will be most pertinent to the local producers and showcase technologies used in the processes, Kenny said.
For example, the Hutchison County meeting at Morse will have a presentation and field tour showing advantages of subsurface drip irrigation in a drought year, as well as an update of drought-tolerant corn. And the Etter meeting will contain a walk-through of selected AgriLife Research plots.
In addition, three primary corn projects will be included at each meeting. They are the North Plains Groundwater District 12-200 Corn Demonstration Project, the AgriLife Extension North Plains Efficient Profitable Irrigation in Corn project, or EPIC as it is known, and the AgriLife Research 12-200 Corn project.
In addition, updates will be given on AgriLife Research’s corn breeding program and multi-level corn irrigation studies, Kenny said.
Each meeting also will contain field tours to the North Plains groundwater district’s cooperator plots and fields with EPIC project work, he said.
Three general Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education units for pesticide applicators will be provided and five continuing education units for certified crop advisers, four in the soil and water category and one in crop management.
Lunch and registration fees will be covered at each location by local sponsors and the North Plains Groundwater Conservation District.
The complete agenda for each meeting will be posted after Aug. 5 at: http://amarillo.tamu.edu/facultystaff/nicholas-kenny/
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