MANHATTAN — The Kansas State University Department of Plant Pathology and the Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission are pulling together to offer a series of field days aimed at improving producer’s productivity and profitability.
K-State plant pathologist Rodrigo Onofre said the Sorghum Connection Field Days will run on consecutive Wednesdays in September, including:
Sept. 4 – Bavara Field Day. 8:30 a.m. at a location 1.25 miles west of Bavaria and ¾ miles north on South Powers Road.
Sept. 11 – Dighton Field Day. 8:30 a.m. at Hineman Farms, One mile north of Dighton at the intersection of Road 160 and Highway 23.
Sept. 18 – Russell Field Day. 8:30 a.m. at a location near the corner of North Copeland Street and East State Street.
Onofre said each program provides sorghum producers with information on managing stalk rot, selecting hybrids, fertility and other cropping system practices. The information is from on-farm research trials in Kansas.
There is no cost to attend, but interested persons are asked to register online at https://kstate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2gdnuCkMk0upad0.
“Our hope is to bring multi-disciplinary, data-driven information to Kansas sorghum producers to help improve on-farm productivity and profitability,” Onofre said. “At each location, we have established more than 20 hybrids, stalk rot management trials, and fungicide and cropping system studies.”
In addition to Onofre and several industry representatives, field day speakers include: Lucas Haag, K-State Department of Agronomy; Craig Dinkel and Jay Wisbey, K-State Research and Extension agriculture agents; Leticia Viera, a master’s degree student in K-State’s Department of Plant Pathology.
Combined, that group makes up a portion of what is known as the Sorghum Connection team in Kansas.
“To say that the Sorghum Connection team is excited for this new series is an understatement,” said Maddy Meier, director of communications for Kansas Grain Sorghum. “We are proud to have put together a new generation of field days that have been built upon producer input, meaning this series is truly put on for farmers, and by farmers.”
According to the Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission, Kansas ranks as the No. 1 grain sorghum producing state in the United States. Kansas farmers produce approximately 185 million acres of the crop, or about 46% of all grain sorghum grown in the country.
More information on the field day series is available online from the Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission.
