PULLMAN — Summer is no respite from school days for WSU’s agricultural faculty. The classroom just moves outofdoors to research facilities and plots in commercial farmers’ fields. Their students are farmers and other workers in agricultural industries.
WSU has been holding field days under one name or another for more than a hundred years. Faculty either go out into the state to teach groups of farmers or invite producers to meet them at WSU research facilities around the state.
Scientists give progress reports on various research projects, keeping producers abreast of developing new technologies and better systems of farming.
About 120 farmers attended the June 27 Direct Seed Field Day at the conservation farm near Pullman. It was sponsored by WSU, University of Idaho and USDA Agricultural Research Service to promote direct seeding, a type of farming that eliminates or reduces plowing.
WSU holds field days throughout Washington each year for growers of many commodities, including wheat, legumes, apples and potatoes. Other field days focus on a technology, such as direct seeding or precision agriculture. They are held throughout the year, but the summer growing season is particularly busy.
Field days are an important element in WSU’s landgrant mission to extend scientific information to citizens who can use it to improve their welfare.
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