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This year’s North Dakota State University Carrington Research Extension Center (CREC) organic/sustainable field day will be a virtual event only available on the internet due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Producers and others will be able see the center researchers’ work by watching short prerecorded videos shot on location. The videos will be available starting July 14 at https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/CarringtonREC.

“The demand for foods produced organically has consistently grown through the years,” says Steve Zwinger, organic research specialist at the CREC. “Being able to do research on organic production at the CREC has allowed the industry to come together, provide synergies and enhance organic production and use.”

Topics for this year’s field day and the presenters are:

• Oats production and breeding – Mike McMullen, professor, NDSU Plant Sciences Department
• Organic research at NDSU: where we are and where we are going – Burton Johnson, professor, NDSU Plant Sciences Department
• Organic research, craft barley breeding and breeding cereal crops for taste and nutrition – Rich Horsley, professor and department head, NDSU Plant Sciences Department
• Organic perennial flax trials – Brett Hulke, U.S. Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service
• Organic bindweed and Canada thistle control – Gretta Gramig, associate weed science professor, NDSU Plant Sciences Department
• Organic oat/pea intercropping – Tom Rabaey, General Mills production research agronomist
• General Mills and organic oat breeding – Paul Richter, General Mills oat breeder, South Dakota State University, Brookings
• Organic buckwheat production – Rick Mittleider, organic farmer, Tappen, N.D.
• Determinate buckwheat and working with the Farm Breeding Club – Zwinger
• Organic mentorship: boots-on-the-ground training for the next generation of organic farmers – Blaine Schmaltz, Blaine’s Best Seeds, Rugby, N.D.
• OATS (Organic Agronomic Training Service) and Extension education – Clair Keene, Extension agronomy specialist, NDSU Williston Research Extension Center, and North Dakota’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program co-coordinator
• Northern Plains Sustainable Ag Society and NDSU organic N fixing corn research – Verna Kragnes, Northern Plains Sustainable Ag Society, Fargo, N.D.
• Organic wheat/flax intercropping – Zwinger
• SARE program – Karl Hoppe, Extension livestock systems specialist, CREC, and North Dakota’s SARE program co-coordinator

For more information about the organic/sustainable agriculture program, contact Zwinger or Hoppe at 701-652-2951 or by email at steve.zwinger@ndsu.edu or karl.hoppe@ndsu.edu.