With only 13-14 inches of average annual rainfall, dryland farmers in the MonDak region need to know the best farming strategies for utilizing that limited moisture and improving nutrient use to sustain yields and remain profitable. Researchers with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service’s Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory (NPARL) in Sidney are studying new rotations and management practices to help make that happen and ARS Agronomist Brett Allen will share results from existing dryland research and upcoming new projects as part of the lab’s BrownBagger series this Friday, Feb. 1.
Dr. Allen’s presentation, entitled “Dryland Cropping Research in NE Montana,” runs from noon to 1 pm, and addresses diversified cropping systems incorporating pulse crops such as pea and lentil, oilseeds such as canola and camelina, and dryland corn, as well as long-term projects looking at spring wheat and durum management and diversification. He will also briefly discuss other new and ongoing research focusing on studies of cover crops and a new national project on oilseeds for biofuels.
NPARL’s 2013 BrownBagger series is held in the lab’s Tech Transfer Room on Fridays, from noon to 1 p.m. The lab is located at 1500 N. Central Avenue in Sidney, MT.
Other speakers in this year’s series include:
Friday, February 15: Gadi V.P. Reddy, New Superintendent & Associate Professor of Entomology/Insect Ecology at Montana State University’s Western Triangle Ag Research Center; “Integrated Control Tactics of insect pests in Tropical and Subtropical Crops”
Friday, March 1: Erin Espeland, NPARL Plant Ecologist; “Production farm location affects subsequent seed performance in Sandberg’s bluegrass”
Friday, March 15: Robert Srygley, NPARL Insect Ecologist, “U.S. Agriculture in a Changing Climate”
Friday, March 29: Upendra Sainju, NPARL Soil Scientist; “Life-cycle assessment of dryland greenhouse gas emissions affected by cropping sequence and nitrogen fertilization”
For more information, contact Beth Redlin at 406-433-9427.
Reader Comments(0)