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A Haskell Agricultural Laboratory video tour and a live Zoom session are scheduled for Aug. 5.

Curt Arens, Editor, Nebraska Farmer

July 22, 2020

2 Min Read
No-till specialist Dan Gillespie demonstrates water infiltration under different soil health scenarios
GOOD SOIL: No-till specialist Dan Gillespie demonstrates water infiltration under different soil health scenarios at the Science and Ag Family Field Day last summer at the Haskell Ag Lab near Concord, Neb. Curt Arens

The Haskell Agricultural Laboratory, just east of Concord, Neb., began in 1957 as a University of Nebraska research farm. The Experimental Farm Association took a donation of 320 acres from the C.D. Haskell family and turned it over to UNL.

In the past, HAL hosted VIP tours of the farm that included special invitations to specific groups across northeast Nebraska, offering tours of research being conducted at HAL, as well as annual meals, educational sessions and awards.

Three years ago, the VIP tours morphed into the annual Science and Ag Family Field Day event in early August. These successful, daylong events hosted hundreds of local farmers and ag enthusiasts and their families for interactive displays and sessions, vendor exhibits, talks from UNL Extension staff, and field tours.

The Family Field Day event is scheduled again this year for Aug. 5, although COVID-19 has pushed the agenda into a virtual format.

A virtual video tour of HAL will launch at 8 a.m. that day, featuring current research and educational programming taking place there. A live Zoom session at 2 p.m. will allow farmers and area residents to listen in on informative sessions and ask questions about soybean gall midge, and food labeling facts and fiction, as well as other topics.

There also is a video-on-demand component to the virtual field day, covering topics about food safety, food and nutrition demonstrations, grazing management, nitrate management, tree care, cow milk production and calf size, as well as Nebraska land values, cash rental rates, farm and ranch succession, and the tree species of the Northeast Arboretum at HAL. There also will be a scavenger hunt in the arboretum for anyone interested in taking a self-guided walking tour at the site.

To join the tour or the Zoom meeting, participants need to register at go.unl.edu/HALvirtualtour. Registrants will receive a link to join the Zoom meeting at 2 p.m.

For more information, contact Mary Jarvi at [email protected] or Sarah Roberts at [email protected].

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Covid 19

About the Author(s)

Curt Arens

Editor, Nebraska Farmer

Curt Arens began writing about Nebraska’s farm families when he was in high school. Before joining Farm Progress as a field editor in April 2010, he had worked as a freelance farm writer for 27 years, first for newspapers and then for farm magazines, including Nebraska Farmer.

His real full-time career, however, during that same period was farming his family’s fourth generation land in northeast Nebraska. He also operated his Christmas tree farm and grew black oil sunflowers for wild birdseed. Curt continues to raise corn, soybeans and alfalfa and runs a cow-calf herd.

Curt and his wife Donna have four children, Lauren, Taylor, Zachary and Benjamin. They are active in their church and St. Rose School in Crofton, where Donna teaches and their children attend classes.

Previously, the 1986 University of Nebraska animal science graduate wrote a weekly rural life column, developed a farm radio program and wrote books about farm direct marketing and farmers markets. He received media honors from the Nebraska Forest Service, Center for Rural Affairs and Northeast Nebraska Experimental Farm Association.

He wrote about the spiritual side of farming in his 2008 book, “Down to Earth: Celebrating a Blessed Life on the Land,” garnering a Catholic Press Association award.

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