Six crop tours will display cereal variety testing program

First crop variety tour of the season for Whitman County will be June 9. Six sessions in the county will be conducted by the WSU Cereal Variety Testing program.

Farmers and WSU extension staff will meet at 8 a.m. at the McGregor Plant in LaCrosse to learn about new crop varieties.

After the introduction June 9, the tour will move to the farm of Steve Camp west of Dusty. Camp, along with a program speaker, will talk about the camelina variety trial being conducted on the land. They will also talk on bio-diesel processing and show participants a legume variety trial.

The tour will wrap up on Bob Morasch’s farm west of Endicott where participants can learn about the cereal variety testing. Participants will view a host of new varieties of wheat and barley.

“The main thing I want to stress is it is important for growers to see how varieties perform in their region, what kind of disease resistant package do they have? Are they going to be more resistant to stripe-rust in that area?,” said WSU County Extension Agent Steve Van Vleet.

Of the 60 or so varieties to be shown, 23 are new varieties of wheat and barley.

“It’s really important for growers to know what the varieties look like and their performance in the field,” he added.

The other five tours will be led by Van Vleet. Tour dates are June 29 in Pullman and July 12 in Colton (PNW Farmers Cooperative). On July 13, the tour will visit Farmington, St. John and Lamont, consecutively.

On July 6, the WSU extension is hosting the 2011 Crop Diagnostic Clinic. Participants learn about diagnosing crop problems like disease or management issues.

Specialists from the WSU Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, the extension office, Plant Pathology and USDA have developed plots to demonstrate problems known to occur in grain crops in eastern Washington.

The deadline to register for the clinic is June 29. For more information, call the WSU Extension, Whitman County office at 397-6290.