Iowa State Research Farm Field Days Begin June 16

AMES, Iowa — Iowa State University's Research and Demonstration Farms field days this year, which begin June 16, will include the 75th anniversary celebration at the Muscatine Island Research and Demonstration Farm. The Muscatine Island farm was established in 1935 by a partnership of local growers and Iowa State to tackle problems growing and marketing vegetable and melon crops and has expanded to include research on corn and soybeans. The Muscatine Island Research Farm Association owns the 106-acre farm in Fruitland and ISU operates it for research and demonstration purposes. The field day will begin at 1 p.m. June 29 and include an anniversary celebration and crop tours on biodegradeable mulch, subsurface drip irrigation, sweet corn herbicides, Colorado potato beetle management and weather and crop topics. Lunch will be served at noon. The farm is located at 111 North St., Fruitland. The first research farm field day of the summer on June 16 will be at the Armstrong Research and Demonstration Farm near Lewis. The 9:30 a.m. field day will cover topics including, miscanthus as a potential biomass crop, Western corn rootworm and Bt corn, switchgrass use in wide buffer strips and nitrogen fertilization of corn and cover crops. The farm is 11 miles southwest of Atlantic on Highway 6, one-half mile south on M53 and three-quarters of a mile east. The Southeast Research and Demonstration Farm near Crawfordsville will have a field day June 24 at 1 p.m. Topics include nitrogen management and cover crops, soybean aphids and sorghum for cellulosic ethanol. From Crawfordsville, the farm is located one and three-quarter miles south, two miles east on G62 and three-quarters of a mile north on the Washington/Louisa county-line road. The Northern Research and Demonstration Farm near Kanawha will have its field day at 9:30 a.m. June 29. Topics include: GPS equipment, soybean diseases and current crop issues. The farm is located just south of Kanawha on county road R35. The field day at the Northwest Research and Demonstration Farm near Sutherland will begin at 9:30 a.m. June 30. Topics include: tillage and P and K fertilizer, corn rootworm management, tiling demonstration and a crop update. The farm is located 11 miles north of Cherokee on U.S. Highway 59 and a quarter mile east on county road B62. The Northeast Research and Demonstration Farm near Nashua has scheduled its field day for 1 p.m. June 30. Topics include: weed management, foliar fungicide for corn and soybeans, nitrogen fertilizer, biofilters and aphid resistant soybean varieties. The farm is located one mile west of the Highway 218 and B60 intersection in Nashua, one mile south and a quarter mile east. More field days are scheduled for the late summer, in addition to a series of demonstration garden field days at most of the farms. The year's field days are listed on the web: https://farms.cals.iastate.edu/research-farms-field-days-and-meetings, where you can get directions to the farms.