Get Up! It’s (almost) Field Day!

If you haven’t read our last two Center Points blogs, you’ve missed a lot of detail about our annual field day. Scroll down and catch up!

First of all, it looks like our Field Day weathercast is favorable. We might be in a slight cooling trend, and chances of rain are slim. (Don’t worry, though – if a sudden squall pops up, we’re prepared to move indoors for a bit.)

Here’s the agenda, twenty-four hours out:
7:30 a.m. Mary Keena will be on “Greg in the Morning” on KDAK 1600 AM and 100.1 FM
9:00 a.m. Coffee and donuts; photos with the NCAA Division I FCS National Championship Football trophy
9:10 a.m. We’re starting (5 minutes) earlier than originally planned because we will hear remarks from
     Carrington REC Director Mike Ostlie
     NDSU President David Cook
     NDSU Athletic Director Matt Larsen
     NDSU VP for Agricultural Affairs Greg Lardy

9:30 a.m. Morning tours
     Agronomy
     Livestock Production; meet NDSU Animal Sciences Chair Guillermo Scaglia
     Organic/Sustainable Agriculture
     Northern Hardy Fruit Production; special guest Bruce Gussiaas (Dakota Sun Gardens and Winery)

12:00 noon sponsored lunch. Thank you to the North Dakota Corn Utilization Council, North Dakota Soybean Council, Northern Canola Growers Association, Northern Pulse Growers Association, and USDA North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program.

1:15 p.m. Afternoon events
 **Agronomy tour with John Deere “See and Spray” technology, plant pathology updates related to spray droplet size, and information on weed resistance with a weed dispersal demonstration
**Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society tour at Cows & Co Creamery (registration and fee required)
 **Tours available at Dakota Sun Gardens and Winery (no pre-registration but there is a fee)
 **North Dakota Department of Agriculture Organics Advisory Board meeting

Along with the opportunity to visit with CREC staff, please make time to say hello to our special guests from NDSU Main Campus: David Cook, Colleen Fitzgerald, Greg Lardy, Matt Larsen, David Buchanan, Guillermo Scaglia, and John Glover.

We’re grateful to our colleagues from campus, NDSU Extension, and our fellow RECs for speaking at our Field Day. Thanks to James Rogers, Zac Carlson, Dr. Gerry Stokka, Quincy Law, Dave Franzen, Oscar Rodriguez, Kristin Simons, Andrew Green, Nonoy Bandillo, Jeff Gale, Richard Horsley, Burton Johnson, Greta Gramig, and Mike McMullen.

We must take this opportunity to thank our summer crew for all they do to help us. We more than double the number of employees at the Carrington REC during the summer months by hiring local high school and returning college students to work in our plots and lab. They work outdoors most of the time, in a wide range of temperature and relative humidity, but if it’s raining they help us keep our offices clean and lab work up to date. On Field Day, our summer crew will be greeting guests, serving lunch, and working with us to set up and clean up. It’s a lot of work, but with plenty of help it all goes quickly.

Karl Hoppe will be missing Field Day for maybe the first time ever, but with good reason. He is attending the National Association of County Agricultural Agents meeting (in Florida!) where he will be inducted into the NACAA Hall of Fame. Only one other North Dakotan has received this honor, which recognizes demonstrated commitment, dedication and effective leadership in job performance as an outstanding educator, association involvement at the state and national level, and outstanding humanitarian service. This award is presented annually to one person from each of the four NACAA regions.

In other award news, Colin Tobin received the 2022 Young Scholar Award at the recent American Society of Animal Scientists annual meeting in Oklahoma a few weeks ago. The Young Scholars Program recognizes and features the research accomplishments of recent Ph.D. graduates. Colin earned his Ph.D in Range Science from New Mexico State University, where his graduate work looked at precision livestock management applications.

Last but not least -- we made the t-shirt! The North American Manure Expo just wrapped up (thanks to our NAME past-president Mary Keena for her service on the board of directors), and one of our submissions made the mildly-famous, fan-favorite “Top 10 Rejected Slogans” t-shirt. Which slogan is ours? (Caution – industry-specific “terminology” follows!)

As always, if we can answer any questions, please give us a call. See you at Field Day!

Linda Schuster
Linda.Schuster@ndsu.edu
Administrative Secretary