By Brian Hefty

I know it is a long ways off, but we want you to mark your calendars now for Thursday, July 24 to visit our farm near Baltic, SD!  We will have a free, full day Ag PhD Field Day event like nothing you have ever attended before.

Even if you have joined us at some point in the past on our farm, you won’t want to miss this year’s event.  Here are some of the things we have planned:

  • More hands-on activities for you, including pulling actual soil tests.
  • More learning sessions (mostly in air-conditioned comfort, too) for corn, soybean, wheat and specialty crop growers.
  • More plots and new technologies for you to look at.  Darren and I will be showing you these plots and talking through what we’re learning, including both our failures and successes.
  • More of the Brian vs. Darren plot area.  This area will be bigger this year, and we will give you all the details on what we’re doing this year vs. how last year’s plots turned out.
  • Between Ride & Drive and live demonstrations, we will have a lot more going on than ever before.
  • We talked last year about sub-surface irrigation, but by the time you arrive I hope to have a couple systems in to look at both irrigating through tile lines and with sub-surface drip tape.  I can’t promise my projects will be done, but the odds are pretty good.
  • Live tiling installation.
  • Great guest speakers – I’m not sure who our big-name speakers will be this year, yet, but I am certain we will have people there you will enjoy listening to.
  • Live Ag PhD Radio Show.
  • More equipment for you to see – both our equipment and from various equipment companies
  • Unlike all of the other summer farm shows out there, we don’t invite lots of vendors to participate in this event.  However, you will find the key people from many of the seed, fertilizer and crop protection companies there, so you will be able to get your high-level questions answered.
  • Kid’s activities – we will have inflatables and other games for kids, as usual, but we will also have more activities focused on crop education and farm safety.
  • Health Screening – this was something we did for the first time last year, and it was a hit.
  • Estate Planning – we will have one or two sessions on this popular farm topic, and we’ll have one of the top estate planning lawyers in the U.S. there to answer your questions for free.
  • One of the most important things we hope you take advantage of when you attend our Field Day is to visit with other farmers from other geographies.  Last year we had farmers from 26 states, 2 Canadian provinces, and several other foreign countries.  I personally enjoy the day so much just because of the opportunity to learn what other farmers are doing to be successful in other areas.  I really hope you can join us!  By the way, we will have discounted hotel rooms available; and if you want to fly in that day, we are just 10 miles from the Sioux Falls International Airport.