Field Crops to Take Center Stage at Wiregrass Field Day

The Wiregrass Research and Extension Center (WREC) in Headland will observe its 75th anniversary as an outlying agricultural research unit of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station on Thursday, Aug. 19, from 8 a.m. to noon with an information-packed and tour-filled field crops field day.

Special guest Henry Ivey, who retired as superintendent of the WREC in 1995 after 29 years of service at the facility, will kick off the day’s activities with comments on the center’s 75-year history.

In field tours that will follow Ivey’s comments, peanut research will be a major focus, as scientists from Auburn University’s College of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service discuss their studies of peanut cultivar performance under heavy disease and nematode pressure, narrow- and wide-strip tillage peanut production, peanut variety evaluations in strip versus conventional tillage, advanced peanut breeding lines and insect and disease management in commercial peanut cultivars.

At other stops on the tours, participants will glean information on subsurface irrigation in cotton, weed control in transgenic versus conventional corn, soil compaction problems in conservation tillage, the benefits of sod-based rotations and, on a slightly different front, early- and late-season vegetable production in greenhouse-like structures known as high tunnels.

Participants will have the opportunity to take both of the tours.

Activities will end at noon with a sponsored lunch.

The Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System are co-sponsoring the field day, which is open to all persons regardless of race, gender, religion or national origin.

For more information, call Larry Wells, WREC superintendent, at 334-693-2363. The WREC is located in Headland at the intersection of U.S. Highway 431 and Alabama Highway 134.

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News from:

Office of Ag Communications & Marketing

Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 Comer Hall, Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)

Contact Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu

08/06/04

For immediate release