DATE: 8/19/05

CONTACT: Dr. Steve Meadows, (803) 284-3343, ext. 270

WRITER: Tom Lollis, (803) 284-3343, ext. 241

Fall Field Day is Sept. 1 at Clemson’s Edisto REC

BLACKVILLE – The annual Fall Field Day at Clemson University ’s Edisto Research and Education Center on Sept. 1 will offer something for most every South Carolina farmer, whether he or she produces beef cattle, peanuts, soybeans, cotton, melons or vegetables.

“We’ll have two tours in the morning and two in the afternoon for participants to choose from, and we’ll serve lunch in between the two sessions,” said Steve Meadows, resident director at Edisto REC.

The morning tours will be for peanuts and a cattle-forages combination. The two afternoon tour choices are for row crops and for vegetables.

Registration will begin at 9 a.m. and the tours will start at 10 a.m. The afternoon program starts at 1:15 and conclude around 3:30 .

Those on the peanut tour will hear the latest on leaf spot control, soil diseases, reduced input peanuts, CBR and variety performance, weed control, tomato spotted wilt virus/thrips control, inoculants, nutrient supplements and seed treatments.

The cattle/forage tour will offer an industry update on issues such as the proposed animal identification system, B.S.E. and legislative topics. Participants will also learn about forage production for Southeastern pasture systems, Integrated Resource Management Beef Production Systems, steer feedlot data, and observation of F1 females.

An update on the Asian soybean rust situation will be given during the lunch hour.

The row crop tour will offer updates on soybean breeding, variety trials for cotton and soybeans, control of piercing/sucking bugs in transgenic cotton, fungicides for hardlock in cotton, new technology to detect stink bugs and variable rate irrigation.

The vegetable tour will include presentations on collard and cotton insecticide trials, seedless watermelons and mini-melons, pumpkin varieties, nematode control for double-cropped vegetables, a Jacto fungicide spray demonstration and a virtually impermeable film (VIF) fumigation trial.

Edisto REC is on U.S. Highway 78 three miles west of Blackville.

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