Writer: Joe Bryant (806) 746-6101, j-bryant1@tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. David Worrall (817) 552-9941
CHILLICOTHE–Research to help Texoma region farmers and ranchers make the most of growing conditions and a discussion of property rights for the landowner and tenant will be featured at the 1996 Texoma Ag Day here May 16.
The program begins with registration at 8:30 a.m. at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, south of Chillicothe on Farm Road 91, then a mile south on Farm Road 392.
The program is sponsored by the Extension Services and Agricultural Experiment Stations of Texas and Oklahoma, the Texas Wheat Producers Board and Santa Rosa Cattlewomen, with a committee of area agribusiness leaders chaired by Rick Hardcastle of Vernon.
Visitors will be welcomed by Dr. Edward Hiler, vice chancellor and dean of agriculture and life sciences at Texas A&M University.
New varieties of wheat and oats being proposed for release this year will be on display alongside plots of commercial varieties being grown across the Rolling Plains. Also on the program will be sessions on cool season grasses to supplement wheat pasture, conservation tillage, advances in biotechnology, control of wild oats and cheat in wheat, grain sorghum production and current range research.
Concerns over property rights will be addressed by the luncheon speaker, Dr. Larry D. White, professor and range specialist with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service.
After lunch, producers can receive one continuing education unit required for state certification of pesticide applicators. This optional session will deal with chemical handling and cleanup and qualifies for CEUs in the laws and regulations category.
During the morning, participants can take a field tour and join two of three concurrent sessions, or omit the tour and take part in all three concurrent sessions, said Dr. David Worrall, wheat breeder with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.
In one concurrent session, Danny Havins with the Natural Resources Conservation Service-USDA will discuss cool season grasses to supplement wheat pastures. At another, Dr. John Mullet, professor and director of the Crop Biotechnology Center at Texas A&M, will review advances in biotechnology which already are in use on Texas farms. In the third session, Randy Boman of the Noble Foundation, Ardmore, Okla., will report on control measures for cheat and wild oats in wheat.
The field tour will have three stops. At one, Worrall will exhibit two new oat varieties and three new wheat varieties expected to be released this year. Another stop will demonstrate use of conservation tillage and winter cover crops in cotton production. The third stop will feature the hybrid grain sorghum test plot and Dr. L. E. Clark, professor of agronomy with the Experiment Station, will provide information to improve sorghum production in the Texoma region.
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