Maximizing nutrient and water-use efficiencies to be focus

Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, skledbetter@ag.tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Paul DeLaune, 940-552-9941, pdelaune@ag.tamu.edu

VERNON – The Rolling Plains Summer Crops Field Day will be held July 17 at the Texas AgriLife Research Chillicothe station, 1340 Farm-to-Market Road 392, south of Chillicothe.

“Maximizing Nutrient and Water-Use Efficiencies” will be the title of this year’s program, which will begin with registration at 7:45 a.m., followed by the field tour from 8:30-10:30 a.m., said Dr. Paul DeLaune, AgriLife Research environmental soil scientist at Vernon.

There is no charge for the program and lunch will be provided. Three Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education credits will be offered, DeLaune said.

Topics and AgriLife Research scientists from the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Vernon who will speak on the field tour will be:

- Availability of well water and soil nitrate for crop uptake: Significant amounts of nitrogen may be available through residual soil nitrate levels or elevated nitrates in well water, DeLaune and Dr. Srinivasulu Ale, geospatial hydrologist.

- Irrigation Scheduling Technologies: Demonstrate the latest available technologies to increase irrigation water-use efficiency, Dr. Nithya Rajan, agronomist.

- Five Years of No-till, What Have We Learned?: Production of dryland and irrigated sorghum and cotton as affected by tillage systems, DeLaune; economics of tillage systems, Dr. Seong Park, economist; water availability in different tillage systems, DeLaune; and greenhouse gas emissions, Rajan.

- Cover Crops in Dryland Cotton: Performance of legume and non-legume cover crops, and impact on soil moisture, DeLaune.

At 10:30 a.m., the program will move inside for the following topics and speakers:

- Optimizing Fertilizer Application to Maximize Profits, Daren Harmel, research leader, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agriculture Research Service, Temple.

- Soil Health Strategies, Functions Soils Can Provide, Willie Durham, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service state conservationist agronomist, Temple.
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