Southwest Research Center Field Day Sept.13

MT. VERNON, Mo. — Weed management tips and tools along with speakers on beef production and nutrition, soil health, food preservation, agriculture job opportunities, blackberry production, and elderflower research will all be featured during the annual Southwest Research Center field day set for 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 13.

After two years of hosting its field day on a Saturday, the Southwest Research Center has moved its annual event back to a weekday in 2018. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 13 with tours beginning at 9 a.m.

The event is free and open to the public. Meal tickets can be purchased before lunch, which will be served at noon. Schreiber Foods has donated the food for the field day and will be cooking and serving the food as well.

“We look forward to bringing students, agricultural producers, and the general public in each year to our field day,” Superintendent David Cope said. “This year, we have a special focus on effective strategies to deal with weeds.”

Andy Thomas, assistant research professor, will lead a horticulture tour from 9-10 a.m. during the Southwest Research Center field day.

Kevin Bradley, professor in the MU Division of Plant Sciences, will open the discussion at 9 a.m. Mandy Bish will follow at 9:30 a.m. Bish is a specialist with MU Extension. MU graduate student Gatlin Bunton will close the presentations at 10 a.m.

Andy Thomas, assistant research professor, will lead a horticulture tour from 9-10 a.m. as well.

“We are fortunate in that we are very diverse in the types of research done at the Southwest Research Center,” Cope said. “We have cattle and fescue toxicity research, to blackberries and elderberries, to black walnuts, pecans, and pawpaws.”

From 11 a.m. to noon and from 1-2 p.m. there will be an “Ask the Experts” panel where guests can bring in questions, as well as weeds or plants to be identified.

“Often, producers will come to our field day with questions about specific issues, or they will bring in something to be identified,” Cope said. “We wanted to give them ample opportunity to do both.”

Attendees of the field day will also have access to more than 30 speakers who will be presenting during agriculture education day. Those speakers will be touching on subjects such as beef production and nutrition, soil health, food preservation, job opportunities, blackberry production, and elderflower research.

GROUNDBREAKING

The Southwest Research Center will also host a groundbreaking ceremony for its new educational building at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 13.

A new facility will allow the Southwest Research Center to meet those growing meeting needs even better.

“Our current facility has been here since the 1960s,” said Cope. “The existing room we have for meetings is smaller and outdated, as far as being able to utilize newer technology. We often have people who want to host meetings at the Center because of our location. We can’t always accommodate them because of the limitations of the existing facility. We’re excited that we’ll soon have a place to host larger meetings and conferences.”

Serving as a footprint for the University of Missouri in the southwest part of Missouri, the Center is a meeting place for farmers, producers, Extension regional specialists, and students. The new facility will allow the Southwest Research Center to meet those growing meeting needs even better.

MORE INFORMATION

A complete list of speakers, topics and times can be found online at southwest.missouri.edu.

The Southwest Research Center is located at 14548 Highway H in Mt. Vernon, Mo., and is one of the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources’ Agricultural Research Centers.

For more information about the field day, call 417-466-2148 or email Cope at Copede@missouri.edu.

Story written by Logan Jackson.

— University of Missouri Extension

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