The Virginia Tech Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center (AREC) will hold its pre-harvest field crops tour the morning of Thursday, Sept. 12. 

The tour will be held at the Center’s research farm at 1045 Hare Road in Suffolk. 

Specialists will display field research in progress and present valuable information for the 2013 harvest season and 2014 planting season. 

Important topics addressed will include cotton defoliation strategies; peanut variety and maturity assessment; soil fertility in cotton; and disease and insect management in cotton, peanut, and soybean. 

Virginia private pesticide applicator certification credits will be available for participants. 

Lunch will be served after the tour and updates presented from USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS).

Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. with the tour starting promptly at 8:00 a.m. 

Pre-registration by Sept. 3 is highly encouraged by contacting Gail White at the Tidewater AREC (757-657-6450, ext. 430 or [email protected]).

The Virginia-Carolina Peanut Variety and Quality Evaluation (PVQE) Pre-Harvest Field Tour will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013 at the Taylor Slade Farm in Williamston, N.C. 

A demonstration of maturity testing techniques, including pod blasting starts at 9:00 a.m. The annual tour starts at 10:30 a.m. 

Contact Maria Balota at the Tidewater AREC (757-657-6450, ext. 407) for more information.