The Northwest Research and Outreach Center (NWROC) Crops and Soils Day is scheduled for Wednesday, July 16, 2026, at NWROC’s Maintenance/Farm Operations building south of Polk County Hwy 71 on NWROC’s campus. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. for the morning small grains tours.
Board buses at 8:00 a.m. to start the tours. Lunch takes place at about noon followed by registration for the afternoon sugarbeet tour at 12:30 p.m. Board the buses at 1:00 p.m.
The Northwest Research and Outreach Center’s Crops and Soils Day provides an opportunity for NWROC’s faculty and staff to show off the important research that takes place each year at our Center. The event is intended for producers, agricultural professionals, and the community to learn first-hand the results of research relevant to farming issues of our local region and the state of Minnesota.
Morning tours of small grains, soils, soybeans and pest management.
Registration 7:30 a.m. with two buses leaving the shop at 8:00 a.m. A complimentary lunch served from 11:45 -12:30.
Dr. Jim Anderson: Wheat Breeding Variety Update
Dr. Kevin Smith: Barley and Oat Breeding Update
Dr. Ian MacRae: Insect Round up (we’ll need a very tiny lasso…)
Dr. Murad Ellafi: Performance of Subsurface Drainage for Soybean, Wheat, & Sugarbeet Production
Isabella Fiora: Iron Deficiency Chlorosis in Soybeans
Dr. Angie Peltier: Raising Competitive Soybeans
Dr. Jochum Wiersma: Winter crop update
Dr. Ruth Dill-Macky: Small Grains Disease
Dr. Brian Steffenson: Demystifying Net Blotch in Barley
Afternoon Sugar Beet Disease and Crop Management Program
Registration 12:30 p.m. with simultaneous tours starting at 1:00 p.m. A complimentary lunch served from 11:45 -12:30
Dr. Ashok Chanda: Disease Management in Sugar beets
Dr. Murad Ellafi: Strip-tilled Sugar Beets
Dr. Thomas Peters:
-Sugarbeet tolerance with ethofumesate incorporated or applied preemergence.
-Fall and spring applied soil residual herbicides for waterhemp control, sugarbeet tolerance.
Dr. Eric Branch: Herbicide, fungicide and insecticide mixtures
