MISSISSIPPI STATE -- The North Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Verona will hold its biennial Agronomic Row Crops Field Day Aug. 4 at the Lee County AgriCenter on Highway 145 South.

Registration begins at 8 a.m. and the field tour of the center’s cotton, soybean and corn research and demonstration plots starts at 8:30 a.m.

The tour will include presentations on 15-inch row spindle picker cotton, cotton variety seeding rates and blending cotton varieties. Also included will be reports on corn insect management, Roundup Ready corn hybrids, corn and soybean production in fescue sod, soybean varieties and reduced seeding rates for soybeans. An additional highlight of the soybean stop will be the opportunity to see the performance of dozens of varieties in Mississippi State University’s 2004 soybean variety trial.

During the tour, MSU Extension Service crop specialists and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station scientists will discuss the current row crop situation.

A program on potentially invasive weeds in row crops and the latest information on Mississippi’s noxious weed list will begin at 11 a.m.

“Several invasive weeds, including tropical spiderwort and yellow devil’s claw, have recently appeared in the Southeast and are a potential threat to Mississippi row crops,” said Joe Street, interim head of the NMREC. “This session will be beneficial for row crop producers and other landowners, especially those with pastures for forage and hay.”

Charles Bryson, a botanist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and John Byrd, MSU Extension weed scientist, will discuss cogongrass and other weeds on Mississippi’s invasive weed list.

A sponsored lunch will follow the invasive weed session. David Waide, president of the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation will deliver the keynote address.