The University of Georgia Southeast Georgia Research and Education Center (SREC) in Midville, Georgia, will host its annual field day on Wednesday, Aug. 14.

Registration will begin at 9 a.m. and tours of the 719-acre center are set to begin at 9:30 a.m. A free lunch will be available at 12:30 p.m. Preregistration is not required for the event.

The field day will feature presentations and research findings from UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences researchers with an emphasis on cotton, corn, peanuts and soybeans.

Featured speakers will include Mark Abney, UGA Cooperative Extension peanut entomologist; David Bertioli, CAES assistant research scientist in the Center for Applied Genetic Technologies; Mark Freeman, east Georgia Extension agronomist; Bob Kemerait, UGA Extension plant pathologist; Zenglu Li, CAES soybean breeder; Scott Monfort, UGA Extension peanut agronomist; Phillip Roberts, UGA Extension cotton and soybean entomologist; and Daniel Mailhot and Dusty Dunn with the UGA Statewide Variety Testing Program.

Research at the Midville center is geared to the needs of farmers in east Georgia due to growing conditions that are much different than those that producers experience in other parts of the state.

“A lot of our disease pressure is different at varying times of the growing season. The insect pressure is different. Different insects can be found at varying times, compared to Tifton,” said Anthony Black, superintendent of the SREC. “Our climate over here tends to be a little drier. Our rainfall amounts are not what you would see in Tifton or southwest Georgia.”

The field day has garnered enthusiastic support from farmers and industry leaders in the area, said Black, who expects to see as many as 150 to 175 people in attendance.

Story by Clint Thompson, University of Georgia College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences