This time of year, you could attend a University of Nebraska, Natural Resources District, seed company or agribusiness-related field day of some kind anywhere in the state — almost every week, sometimes multiple times a week.

These demonstration and field days offer producers a close-up view of what is next, what works in the field and, perhaps more importantly, what doesn’t.

We opened our archived Oct. 7, 1950, issue of Nebraska Farmer to Page 9 and found an article modern growers and Nebraska Extension staff can relate to, “Crop Day Crowd at NU.”

This article, sandwiched between a story about corn silage cutting and another about contour plantings of intermediate wheatgrass in the Sandhills to prevent erosion, talks about a recent field day hosted on campus in Lincoln by the College of Agriculture.

73 years ago

The story relates how Dr. F. L. Duley discussed varied methods of seeding grasses that were being researched at the time. The treatments included seeding into plowed ground and stubble mulch. The research emphasis, like now, was that the stubble mulch cover kept the soil from “gullying” after rain events, allowing the grass seed to better establish without causing erosion.

Another crop rotation study looked at fertility issues in planting corn after bromegrass, which was fairly common. Nitrogen deficiencies were noticed in these cases, much like farmers would notice bringing former Conservation Reserve Program land back into crop production. The answer in 1950 was planting sweet clover into the rotation to benefit soil fertility and prevent erosion.

“Dr. Duley emphasized that it was very important to have legumes in a rotation,” the story went on. “Corn following biennial sweet clover and hairy vetch were better than the check plots.” Other legumes were studied, including partridge pea and lespedeza, with mixed results.

There were soybean plots, with the old Hawkeye variety coming in as one of the best. On the corn side, Nebraska certified corn numbers such as Nebraska 801 W topped out the white corn yield plots. For yellow corn, Nebraska 701 was one of the best.

Soybean Management Field Days today

These days, attending crop field days in the summer is just a part of doing business for many producers. Generally, you don’t have to drive to Lincoln to attend them.

One of the well-known and long-running field day series in the state is the Soybean Management Field Days conducted each summer at sites across Nebraska. Since 1999, SMFD have been held at different farm locations each year across soybean-producing counties.

DECADES AGO: This article in the Oct. 7, 1950, issue of Nebraska Farmer talks about a crop field day held on campus at the University of Nebraska, talking about the most recent agronomic and livestock research. (Farm Progress)

Replicated research has been conducted at these farm sites since 2012, with results related to producers and agronomy professionals attending the field days.

Usually, these field days cover soybean insect management, disease management, irrigation, cover crops, weed management, precision agriculture, ag economics, and biodiesel and renewable diesel — powered by soybeans.

This year’s series of field days are still being planned, but a tentative schedule shows another outstanding lineup of soybean-related research. Scheduled from Aug. 8-11, the programming will run from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at each location, with Aug. 8 held near Rockville, Aug. 9 at UNL Haskell Ag Lab near Concord and Aug. 10 at the UNL Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension and Education Center near Mead —  with details still forthcoming on the Aug. 11 location.

In these useful soybean field days, and hundreds of other similar research and demonstration field plots across the country, the idea is the same as it was back in 1950 — to share some of the research and trials being done by universities and private companies with producers in hopes they can find useful practices to take home to their own farms.