The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture recently hosted the 32nd Milan No-Till Field Day at the AgResearch and Education Center at Milan, Tenn. The event, which occurs every other year, returned to an in-person format for 2022. The COVID pandemic forced organizers to move the previous field day to a completely virtual format in 2020.

"We were really excited to be able to host this event live and in person this year," said Blake Brown, director of the UT AgResearch and Education Center at Milan. "It's great to see old friends and make new connections.

Brown referred to the 2022 field day as a hybrid — a in-person gathering with live presentations that also featured online recordings of research talks on the Center's website, milannotill.tennessee.edu. 

“We saw a huge success with the 2020 Virtual No-Till Field Day,” Brown said. “With that in mind, we decided a virtual component would be helpful to those who could not make it to Milan for the field day or could not make it to all of the tours."

A total of 17 research tours made up the program. Recordings of these presentations will remain available through December 31, 2022. Commercial applicators can receive a total of 12 recertification points by viewing select presentations and completing an online quiz. Certified Crop Advisors can also pick up continuing education units in the same manner.

Field day organizers say more than 1,200 people attended the No-Till Field Day in-person. 

The Milan No-Till Field Day originally began in 1981 as a way to teach local producers the benefits of no-till farming versus traditional tillage. Tours through fields at the research center focused on planter set up, weed control, and cover crops.

Now, the field day has turned into the largest in the nation devoted to conservation tillage, bringing thousands of people to Milan. As no-till farming is now the most prominent type of farming in Tennessee, tours focus on the latest technologies and research in the industry and how those new technologies can be integrated into a no-till system.

The event has been held every other July since 2000.