Milan No-Till Field Day Goes Virtual For 2020
The first Milan No-Till Field Day was held in 1981 in Milan, Tennessee, when the idea of “parking the plow” was a foreign concept to most of the state’s cotton farmers. For many years, it was an annual event. In the early 2000s, it transitioned to every other year.
The historic staple will experience another first in 2020 as it goes virtual on July 23. All presentations, tours and trade show can be viewed online. No activities will take place at the AgResearch and Education Center.
Most content will be in video format and will remain accessible after July 23. Pesticide recertification points and certified crop adviser continuing education units will still be available to participants who view the online content.
Check in at https://milan.tennessee.edu/mntfd or follow the Milan No-Till Field Day Facebook page for more updates.
Seventh Annual #RootedInAg Contest Opens
Applications are now open online for the Thrive #RootedinAg Contest at www.syngentathrive.com/contest.
Syngenta will award three contest finalists with mini touch-screen tablets.
One grand prizewinner will receive a $500 gift card, plus the opportunity to tell his or her story in Thrive magazine, complete with a professional photo shoot with the winner’s ag mentor. In addition, the company will make a $1,000 donation to the winner’s favorite local charity or civic organization.
“In the ag community we regularly push each other to do a better job of telling ‘our story,’” says Pam Caraway, communications lead at Syngenta. “The #RootedinAg Contest gives people in our industry the opportunity to tell their story — and see it amplified in our communities and across our country. You have a good story to tell. Share it.”
Interested candidates can visit the contest website and fill out the brief online entry form, which asks them to describe their ag mentor in one of two ways: Write a paragraph or two (about 200 words) and submit a photograph that visually supports their written entry, or create a short video that lasts for 1 to 3 minutes. Simple instructions on how to upload photographs and videos to the website are on the entry form.
The deadline to enter is June 30. Shortly after this date, a panel of judges will select three finalists.
Syngenta will then post all finalists’ entries on the Thrive website and ask visitors to help choose the grand prizewinner by voting for their favorite. These votes along with the judges’ scores will determine the winner. Online voting ends Sept. 15, with Syngenta announcing the grand prizewinner in October.
To apply, learn more or see previous contest winners, go to www.SyngentaThrive.com.
SmartIrrigation Cotton App Update Released
A new version of the University of Georgia Extension Service’s SmartIrrigation Cotton App is now available.
The app uses weather data to estimate daily crop water use. It maintains a soil water balance by subtracting today’s daily water use from yesterday’s balance and adding any rain or irrigation received over the past 24 hours.
The app pulls weather data from the Georgia Weather Station Network or national gridded data sets. However, it performs best when rain amounts are updated from a rain gauge installed at or near the field. The app sends the user notifications when plant available soil water reaches a predetermined threshold.
The new version includes several improvements recommended by users. For example, the app can now pull rain data from Metos or Trellis automated rain gauges installed in the field. Users can now modify the notification thresholds.
The updated app also allows you to enter the soil water-holding capacity of a field’s soil if that is known, and the new field can now be registered several days after planting. The app will retrieve past weather data, but any irrigation events must still be added manually.
The SmartIrrigation Cotton App can be downloaded at no cost at https://smartirrigationapps.org. To learn more, contact George Vellidis at yiorgos@uga.edu or (229) 402-1278.