Join the SROC Annual Summer Field Tour in Waseca, Minnesota

Jun 13, 2023

The Southern Research and Outreach Center (SROC) in Waseca, Minnesota invites you to join their annual summer field tour on Tuesday, June 20th. This informative event will feature University of Minnesota researchers discussing recent advancements in various agricultural topics.

The tour will begin with registration at 8:30 a.m. at the SROC Administration Building. Researchers will cover issues related to corn production, including the impact of weather delays and flooding on crop development and yield potential. Additionally, weed management strategies for corn and soybean crops will be discussed, highlighting the performance of new products available to farmers across the state.

The event will also delve into the benefits and implications of using cover crops in corn and soybean systems, focusing on nutrient management and water quality. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about biological inputs derived from natural organisms, which have the potential to enhance crop health and fertilizer uptake.

Manure nutrient management will be addressed, with a special emphasis on maximizing the benefits of manure as a nutrient source for corn and soybean growers. The SROC has conducted numerous trials on different application methods, and the results will be summarized during the tour.

The field tour is scheduled to conclude at approximately 11:30 a.m., followed by lunch and a Q&A session. The registration fee of $40 (cash or check only) covers the cost of the tour, handout materials, morning refreshments, and lunch. Certified crop advisors can also earn continuing education units (CEUs) by attending.

Regardless of weather conditions, the event will proceed as planned. In the event of inclement weather, the program will be relocated to the SROC Administration Building. Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights from University of Minnesota researchers and stay informed about the latest developments in corn production, weed management, soil fertility, cover crops, and manure management.

Source : umn.edu

Video: From Students to Solutions | On The Brink: Season 2, Episode 14

Ask Canada’s most decorated soybean breeder his favourite part of the job and he doesn’t name a single variety. He names the students.

Istvan Rajcan is a professor of soybean breeding and genetics in the Department of Plant Agriculture at the University of Guelph, where he has run the soybean breeding program for 28 and a half years. In that time he has developed 87 soybean cultivars, published 140 refereed papers and trained 51 graduate students. In 2025 he received the Public Sector Impact Award from the National Association for Plant Breeding.

He is also worried. In this episode he says Canada is at a crossroads, pointing to recent government cuts to plant breeding programs and to the facilities that support them. His prescription is structural. "Plant breeding funding formula has to be a long-term one," he says.

The formula he is defending is the public-private matching arrangement his program runs on. Private seed companies fund the work, provincial or federal money matches it, and the combined pool stretches each dollar further than either source could alone. At the National Association for Plant Breeding annual meeting in June, he says American public breeders were often surprised at how well that collaboration works in Canada.

He also describes how the people entering plant breeding have changed. His early graduate students came mostly from farms. More recently they include, in his words, "city kids who just became excited about genetics."

Topics covered:

Why public-private plant breeding funding in Canada needs a long-term

commitment rather than a larger one

How matching private seed company investment with provincial and federal

dollars multiplies research capacity

How the graduate student pipeline into plant breeding has shifted from

farm kids to city kids