The Virginia Tech Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center (AREC) will hold its pre-harvest field crops tour the morning of Thursday, September 15th. The tour will be held at the Center’s research farm at 1045 Hare Road in Suffolk. Specialists will display field research in progress and present valuable information for the 2011 harvest season and 2012 planting season. Important topics addressed will include cotton defoliation strategies; peanut variety and maturity assessment; cover crop establishment; variety evaluation in cotton, corn and grain sorghum; and disease and insect management in cotton, peanut, and soybean, including adaptation to the pending loss of Aldicarb (Temik®) nematicide-insecticide. Virginia private pesticide applicator certification credits will be available for participants. Lunch will be served after the tour and updates presented from USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS).

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. with the tour starting promptly at 9:00 a.m. Pre-registration by September 7th is highly encouraged by contacting Gail White at the Tidewater AREC (757-657-6450, ext. 430 or guwhite@vt.edu). If you are a person with a disability and desire any assistive devices, services or other accommodations to participate in this activity, please contact the Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center at 757-657-6450 (TDD number is 800-828-1120) during business hours of 8 am and 4:30 pm to discuss accommodations five days prior to the event.