Research

Corn trial teaching tool and agricultural outreach at SMSU

(2021)
Southwest Minnesota State University/Adam Alford

The agricultural department at SMSU has several major areas of study including ag business, agronomy, and ag education. SMSU also has ~22 acres of land made available by a local alumni and farmer which we routinely use for hands-on student learning. 2021 will be the seventh season this plot has been established and available for SMSU students for hands-on learning. As well as education, these acres have also served as a spot for contracted research for numerous agricultural companies, and is used to supply research/internship opportunities for SMSU agronomy students. We would like to expand SMSU’s role in the agricultural research being conducted in this region by presenting the results of our students work at both SMSU’s annual undergraduate research conference and at SMSU’s agronomy field day. This for example would be conducting a hybrid trial evaluating corn traits, hybrids of the same genetic line comparing treated corn versus conventional hybrids with no treatments, and the efficacy of various insecticides in mitigating corn rootworm damage. We will not only evaluate agronomic performance differences, but also the economic results per hybrid and trait difference. As well as the protocol described, we would invite the
state or local Minnesota corn growers to use the plot area for a field day if desired.