NEWS INDEX Archives 2005 August

Agronomy Day a window on new research at University of Illinois

Molly McElroy, News Bureau
217-333-5802; mmcelroy@uiuc.edu


8/10/05

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. —The latest research on managing soybean rust, controlling weeds and insects and developing renewable fuels will be presented during the 49th annual Agronomy Day from 7 a.m. to noon, Thursday, Aug. 18, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The event, held at the Crop Sciences Research and Education Center on Wright Street extended off St. Mary’s Road, is free and open to the public. With as many as 1,200 people – mainly farmers and other agricultural professionals – attending each year, Agronomy Day is one of the largest events of its kind in the Midwest, said crop sciences professor Stephen P. Moose, the chairperson for the event.

Visitors may browse through research exhibits and take wagon tours of research fields. Each hour-long tour focuses on a different topic and includes several stops during which professors and graduate students in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences will give research presentations. ACES sponsors Agronomy Day.

“The theme of this year, ‘Local Discovery/Global Impact,’ reflects how research at the Illinois campus benefits not only Illinois agriculture, but also influences farming throughout the country and the world,” Moose said.

An example of a global agricultural problem being studied at Illinois is soybean rust. The fungal disease spread from Asia to Africa before arriving in South America in 2001. Now it is spreading to the United States. Soybean rust can destroy up to 80 percent of crop yields, according to the American Soybean Association.

Agronomy Day visitors will learn how Illinois researchers are finding ways to manage the disease by using sentinel plots in the southern part of the state to detect the disease before it spreads further into Illinois.

Other wagon tours will include discussions of weed and insect control. Researchers will explain the optimal conditions in which to use chemicals to reduce pests such as soybean aphids, soybean rust and two-spotted spider mites.

Visitors also will learn about emerging technology, such as use of the plant Miscanthus as an energy source. “Miscanthus is a large, easy-to-grow grass that can be burned for fuel,” Moose said. Visitors will see Miscanthus growing in the research fields.

Wagon tours run about every half hour from 7 a.m. to noon.

Hickory River Smokehouse restaurant in Urbana (formerly the Longhorn Smokehouse) will sell $6 lunches; undergraduate students from the Field and Furrow Club will sell drinks on the tour.