Rogers Farm Hosting Summer Educational Events

Three events are being held in July at the University of Maine Rogers Farm Forage and Crop Research Facility on Bennoch Road in Stillwater to highlight sustainable agricultural research being conducted there.

On July 3, a research tour organized by UMaine Extension sustainable agriculture specialist Ellen Mallory is being offered for a group of 35 Danish organic grain and dairy farmers from 8:30 a.m. to noon. The event is part of a weeklong tour of farms in the region, an exchange that resulted from contacts made during a similar 2010 tour in Denmark by Maine and Vermont bread-wheat farmers and millers.

On July 10, Mallory will lead a meeting, “University of Maine Small Grain and Forage Field Day,” from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., to highlight research being conducted as part of the local bread-wheat and organic dairy projects. Topics include variety trials of wheat, spelt and flax, summer forage options, fitting wheat into dairy rotations, and organic bread-wheat fertility. Additional speakers include Richard Kersbergen, Tom Molloy and Aaron Englander. This event is free and open to the public.

On July 25, the “2012 University of Maine Sustainable Agriculture Field Day” will be held from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The focus of this year’s event will be “Advances in Pest Management” and will include talks on integrated pest management for sweet corn, tree fruit, and home gardens, plantings to attract pollinators, crow management in corn, spotted winged drosophila and the Master Gardener program. An optional pest identification session will be held from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Media are welcome to cover all events. For additional information, contact Charlene Herrick in the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture at (207) 581-3204.