Pasture Irrigation Project Program and
Low Cost Approach to Dairy Production Program

Dan & Rosie Middendorf’s dairy farm. The farm is located 7 miles North of Verndale on County Road 23, then east on County Road 7 and go ¾ miles, with the farm located on the north side of County Road 7. A noon meal will be provided. U of MN Engineer Jerry Wright and Margot Rudstrom will talk about the research being done on pasture irrigation. Dennis Johnson from U of MN Research station in Morris will update producers on his Low Cost Dairy Research and Dan Middendorf and Brad Koll will talk about getting cows out of barns and how it has worked for them.

Low Cost Parlor Program

Dan & Rosie Middendorf farm North of Verndale, Minnesota and continue to Kent & Linda Solberg’s farm about 1 mile south of Middendorf’s. The Middendorf farm is located 7 miles North of Verndale on County Road 23, turn East on County Road 7 and go ¾ miles. Farm is on the north side of County Road 7. A noon meal will be provided. Program will feature parlors from 4 area farms. Program will start at

Otter Tail County Irrigated Corn Silage Plot Tour

Thursday, August 31st        10:30 a.m.

Dan Dreyer Dairy Farm, Ottertail, MN. The Dreyer farm is northeast of Ottertail City. Go east on County Road 108 to County Road 127, go north on County Road 127 for 1 ¾ miles. Go west on Lamplight ¼ mile. Plot site is on the south side of Lamplight Road. The road will be marked. Program will feature a tour of the Corn Plot varieties with a company representative talking about their variety. Paul Peterson, Forage Agronomist from University of Minnesota, Doug Holen, University Regional Extension Educator, and Vince Crary, Extension Educator from Otter Tail County, will also present at the Program. A noon meal will be served sponsored by the Companies who are represented in the Corn Plot.

Soybean Plot Tours in Northwest Minnesota.

Dr. Jim Orf, the University of Minnesota Soybean Breeder, will discuss soybean varieties at each of the research locations. Information about the trials will appear in the Minnesota Variety Trial Results to be published early in the winter. Results of soybean varieties from last year can be found at:

http://www.maes.umn.edu/06VarietalTrials/soybean.pdf

Dr. Orf will also make comments on issues related to soybean, breeding outlook for the near future, specialty soybeans, iron chlorosis and soybean diseases.

At the Roseau and Thief River Falls locations Dr. Hans Kandel will share information on a soybean plant health study currently under way. Dr. Phillip Glogoza will provide a soybean aphid update at the Shelly and Kragnes locations and a discussion on the soybean plant health studies at those sites. Also, Nathan Johnson, Regional Center Director (at Roseau) and Howard Person, Marshall and Pennington Extension Educator (at Thief River), Ray Bisek Norman and Mahnomen County Extension Educator (Shelly) and Rick Abrahamson Clay County Extension Educator (Kragnes) will provide local crop updates. The event is organized by the University of Minnesota Extension Service.

Thursday, September 7th
Thief River Falls tour will start at 9:00 a.m. From Thief River Falls go about 3 miles EAST on Hwy 1 to 180 Ave NE. Plot located at the corner of Hwy 1 and 180 Ave NE on the Si-Mar farm site.

Shelly tour will start 2:00 p.m. on the Swensen Farm. From Shelly, take Hwy 3 east 1.5 mi (there will be a church on the left side of highway), then turn Right (south) on the gravel road. Plots are located about 1 mi south on the right side of the road.

Kragnes tour will start 4:30 p.m. on the Alvin Swanson Farm located I mile N of Kragnes, then 1 mile west on 110th (or Co Rd 99). After the tour refreshments of brats, baked beans, chips and pop will be served by the Clay - Wilkin Soybean Grower Association.

For detailed information about each tour see http://www.prairieagcomm.com/calendar/calendar.cfm