It’s no surprise the focus of this field day will be beef and tobacco. Scheduled for June 25 at the University of Tennessee Highland Rim AgResearch and Education Center, Tobacco, Beef and More will highlight new research, management and production strategies for the region’s tobacco and beef cattle producers. But as the name implies, this field day has more to offer. Visitors can also learn about a number of other topics, including crop and forage variety development and pesticide management issues.

Registration for Tobacco, Beef and More begins at 7 a.m. Field tours will begin at 7:30 a.m. and end at approximately 12:30 p.m. Lunch will be provided by Altria Client Services, the parent company of Philip Morris. It will feature a discussion on animal welfare issues facing livestock production.

The highlight of Tobacco, Beef and More will be field tours aimed to enlighten producers on issues facing the featured commodities. Tobacco tours will focus on high-yielding and disease resistant variety developments, as well as the interaction of nitrogen rates and harvest timing. UT experts will also discuss the potential risk of using recently developed non-cropland and pasture herbicides near tobacco, and herbicide miss-applications.

Beef cattle tours will cover animal health, successful vaccination programs and factors affecting a herd’s reproductive success. Forage topics will explore new annual and perennial forage varieties under development, and the potential for grazing warm season grasses.

Also on the agenda, an overview of the Tennessee crop variety development program, as well as a session on managing herbicide resistant weeds in corn and soybeans.

Tobacco, Beef and More is a free event, and all are welcome to take part in this exciting exchange of information. The field day site is located 25 miles north of Nashville on Oakland Road in Springfield. For more information, you can contact us at 615-382-3130, or visit our Web site, http://highlandrim.tennessee.edu.

The Highland Rim AgResearch and Education Center is one of 10 research facilities operated by the UT Institute of Agriculture. In addition to its agricultural research programs, UTIA also provides instruction research and public service through the UT College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, the UT College of Veterinary Medicine and UT Extension offices in every county in the state.