Wheat Field Days Underway in Colorado
VPG | Jun 07, 2011 | Comments 0
Click on Pictures to Enlarge – Photos by Russ Baldwin
Colorado State University is conducting their annual Wheat Field Days throughout portions of eastern Colorado, and recently completed on-site summaries in Walsh, Brandon and Lamar. Eleven test sites will be viewed through this week and next at Yuma, Julesburg, Haxton, Burlington and Orchard.
One site seventeen miles south of Lamar and owned by John Stulp was surveyed Monday, June 6, with about 15 persons on hand, including area farmers and representatives from CSU and NRCS.
Dr. Scott Haley, Professor/Wheat Breeder from the CSU Department of Soil and Crop Sciences spoke about how private industry has the funding to work with genetically modified wheat seed, and due to the cost of getting a new GM trait to market; most universities don’t have that level of funding. Haley said the public sector needs to work to get a germ plasma base in a competitive position to partner with private industry to deploy genetically modified traits in germ plasma.
Given the current drought situation, last year’s fields are in better shape than this year’s. Stulp said his 320 acres site was in better shape than most of his other fields. Haley said last year, there were higher yields everywhere. Some areas to the north are faring better than southeast Colorado. One farmer near Haxton reported nine inches of rain since the beginning of April.
The area harvest should be complete by early July and some of the raw data will be posted on the internet. Preliminary meetings will be held in August on the harvest outcome. Website information can be seen at csucrop.com and wheat.coloradostate.edu.
By Russ Baldwin
Filed Under: Agriculture • County • Education • Weather
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