March 30, 2010
By: Paul Schattenberg, 210-467-6575, paschattenberg@ag.tamu.edu
UVALDE – A Wheat Field Day, presented by Texas AgriLife Research and the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, will be held from 8 – 11:15 a.m. on April 23 at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center, 1619 Garner Field Rd, Uvalde.
Registration will be from 8 – 8:20 a.m., followed by opening remarks by Dr. Daniel Leskovar, professor and resident director of research at the center, and Bryson Dalrymple, AgriLife Extension agent for agriculture and natural resources, Uvalde County.
“The program will provide new information on wheat varieties, as well as innovative tools utilized in plant breeding research,” Leskovar said. “Participants will also have the opportunity to visit and learn about other research conducted at the center, including our trials with globe artichokes.”
Presentations and visiting the center’s research plots also will help introduce producers to some new technologies available to enhance their cropping systems, Dalrymple added.
Program registration is $10 and 2.5 continuing education units – 2 general and 0.5 in integrated pest management — will be available for private applicators.
Presentations will start at 8:30 a.m. with Dr. Mark Welch, AgriLife Extension economist, College Station, and Thomas Marek, AgriLife Research agricultural engineering superintendent, North Research Field, Etter. Welch will speak on wheat economics and marketing, and Marek will present on irrigation management for wheat. Then Dr. Ron French, AgriLife Extension specialist in plant pathology at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center, Amarillo, will speak on wheat disease and diagnosis, plus fungicide use.
“We’re encouraging participants to bring plant samples with disease problems for diagnostics at the field day,” Leskovar said. “There will be a question-and-answer period that will provide an opportunity for participants to inquire about plant diseases and learn which may be present in their crop.”
Kody Bessent, Texas Wheat Producers Board, will present an industry overview, followed by a discussion period and break during which participants may view informational posters on wheat research. Topics will include genetic loci in wheat regulating leaf-wax cuticle layers and how layer composition may improve reproductive-stage heat and drought tolerance, as well as the effect of heat stress on leaf-wax content in TAM111 and TAM112 wheat varieties.
From 9:45 – 10 a.m., participants will be taken to wheat plots at the center to view some results of center research and field trials.
After the tour, presentations will resume, beginning with a presentation on wheat breeding by Dr. Amir Ibrahim, associate professor, Texas A&M University soil and crop sciences department, College Station. Additional information on wheat breeding will be presented by Dr. Jackie Rudd, AgriLife Research professor of wheat breeding and genetics, Amarillo, and Dr. Dirk Hays, associate professor of cereal grain developmental genetics, soil and crop sciences department, College Station. Then doctoral candidate Sean Thompson will speak about ground-penetrating radar and terrestrial laser scanning as next-generation tools in plant breeding.
The morning’s final presentation will be an update on wheat varieties co-presented by Daniel Hathcoat, AgriLife Extension program specialist, and Dr. Travis Miller, AgriLife Extension program leader and soil and crop sciences associate department head.
The program will conclude at 11:15 a.m.
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