Field peas, chickpeas, black-eyed peas and other pulse crops are being featured at this year’s Nebraska Pulse Crop Conference, set for Nov. 20 at the Bridgeport Prairie Winds Event Center in Bridgeport, Neb., with a second session planned for the following day, Nov. 21 at Younes Conference Center in Kearney, with both workshops beginning at 9 a.m. in their respective time zones.

These free events include morning sessions on agronomy and breeding of peas, soil nutrient management and potential diseases. In the afternoon, sessions will tackle nutrition and quality for human food, trade, crop insurance issues and policy, along with talks by seed and food industry representatives. Registration is required to attend, so call the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research, Extension and Education Center (PREEC) at 308-632-1230 for more information, or register online at unlcorexmuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form.

Recognizing Knorr-Holden study plots

The Knorr-Holden Plot, developed in 1912 on an unclaimed quarter-section of land north of Scottsbluff, Neb., is most likely the oldest irrigated continuous corn research field in the world. Fritz Knorr, superintendent of the Scottsbluff Experiment Substation at the time, began a series of irrigated and dryland cropping rotation experiments on that plot. Five years later, James Holden, the substation’s second superintendent, continued the rotation field studies, establishing further continuity of the historic corn plot. In 1941, all but the irrigated corn plots were discontinued.

This important study plot was honored this August with new signage that reminds visitors of the rich legacy of corn research that was established and has been continued on this same piece of land, now administered by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Panhandle Research, Extension and Education Center.

More than 30 scientists and graduate students have worked on these corn plots and published important research data over the past century. The land, which joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, is currently supervised by Bijesh Maharjan, UNL associate professor at PREEC. He and Dave Ostdiek, a retired UNL PREEC communications specialist, led the charge for the new signage that recognizes the long research legacy of this particular piece of land in Nebraska’s Panhandle.

Learn more at farmprogress.com/management/knorr-holden-plot.