Center pivot irrigation field day set for Aug. 9

A Summer Crops/Ogallala Aquifer Program Center Pivot Irrigation Field Day will be hosted by Texas A&M AgriLife and the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service Aug. 9 at the Conservation and Production Research Laboratory.

The event is free and will begin at 8 a.m. with registration in Texas A&M AgriLife Research’s new equipment storage barn. Attendees should come to the research farm, located 1 mile west of Bushland on the south side of Interstate 40, where there will be further directions to the event site. Following a welcome, buses will load at 8:45 a.m. for the morning tours.

Qingwu Xue, AgriLife Research plant physiologist, Amarillo, said the traditional summer field day has been expanded to provide producers and the general public an opportunity to hear crop and irrigation updates from experts participating in the OAP.

“We wanted to have a chance to show producers some of the most advanced work being done with irrigation both in row crops and vegetables through our collaborative efforts here at the CPRL,” said David Brauer, USDA-ARS laboratory director and OAP administrator, Bushland.

In addition, Brauer said, USDA-ARS and AgriLife faculty will be joined by Kansas State University faculty who also work with on OAP-funded projects.

The lunch program will feature a “History of Sprinkler Irrigation on the Texas High Plains” presentation by Jim Bordovsky, AgriLife Research senior research scientist and engineer, Lubbock/Halfway.

Following lunch, a special session for future vegetable growers will take place at the USDA-ARS facilities.