CNHI
Parson, Kansas —
Tips on building better fences will highlight a special tour at the Southwest Center field day, September 10, said Richard Crawford, superintendent of the University of Missouri research farm.
“In addition to four regular tours, we try a new special tour each year,” Crawford said. Fences, particularly those used in management-intensive grazing systems, will be discussed. Topics include fence types, costs, electric fences and fencing laws.
Regular tours are dairy, beef, agronomy, horticulture and grapes. In addition to the hourly tours, there will be exhibits in the machinery shed and the large equipment and fencing materials will be set up on the midway behind the headquarters.
Tours start promptly at 9 a.m., Crawford said. They end at 1 p.m. with the start of the annual meeting of the Ozark Electric Cooperative under the big top erected for the event.
The event is free and open to the public. The first 1,000 people who register that morning will receive lunch tickets.
The dairy tour will visit the pasture-based milking facilities on the farm and feature crossbred cows being grazed in studies of fescue and ryegrass paddocks.
The beef tour will tell of the second year of research in the new beef facility equipped for measuring feed efficiency. Comparisons will be made between grazing and feedlot efficiency of cows and their calves.
The horticulture tour will have double offerings this year, featuring new work by Lincoln University scientists cooperating on studies at the farm.
On the grape tour visitors will see the hardiness of the various cultivars being tested and hear grape growing tips.
The agronomy tour will include reports on new research on weed control.
The “Ask the Experts” panel will be back, Crawford said. Farmers and homeowners can bring specimens and their questions about weeds, plants, insects and diseases.
The center is four miles southwest of Mount Vernon, south of Interstate 44. For more information, see aes.missouri.edu/swcenter.
Southwest Center is part of the Missouri Agriculture Experiment Station, Columbia, Mo.
