University of Arkansas Field Day

Many of you are aware that the University of Arkansas Turfgrass Field Day, which was scheduled for July 2018, was cancelled because of a freak storm at our facility that destroyed several key structures associated with our program (Photo 1). Normally, we are on an every other year schedule, but have decided to host Field Day in 2019 due to last year’s cancellation.

PHOTO 1: Structure damage from storms that caused 2018’s Field Day to be cancelled

This year’s event will be held at the UofA Turfgrass Research Center in Fayetteville on July 24, 2019. As in the past, we will have research and education tours that are focused on either golf course management (Photo 2), lawn and landscape, or sports fields. A number of the projects and demonstrations that were scheduled for last year will be back on the schedule this year, but we will have some changes due to either research projects finishing last year or new projects starting this year.

PHOTO 2: Dr. Karcher leads an educational session

On the golf side, we will feature research regarding cover strategies such as creating air gaps under covers (Photo 3) for ultradwarf winter protection, the use of drones on a golf course, the latest in wetting agent research, fungicide programs for golf course turf and native plants that can be used in natural areas on the golf course, and several other topics of interest.

PHOTO 3: Foam batting will be discussed as a cover strategy

The sports turf group will have a great opportunity to visit Razorback Stadium and learn about the conversion of the field back to natural grass. The field will be planted to Tahoma 31 and Pat Berger (Director of Sports Turf Operations) will provide insight and details of the project and the progress towards the first game. In addition, there will be demonstrations of the Trimax mowing system (Photo 4) and fraise mowers for athletic field maintenance.

PHOTO 4: TriMax Mowing System will be demonstrated

The lawn care group will get to learn about herbicide programs for annual grass control, best management practices for using fungicides and insecticides, how plant growth regulators can fit into your program, and the latest research on water use of cool-season lawns. Each program will be packed with great information and it is always our goal for every attendee to walk away with some ideas that can help manage their turf more effectively.

One thing that we are going to do differently this year is offer some short, specialized “afternoon programs” for those that may be interested in seeing some additional research or demonstrations of some unique, new equipment. Although these are still under development, there will likely be a “weed walk” tour with Drs. Boyd and Bertucci, equipment demonstrations and some specialized sports field management content for high school coaches who attend.

As we have done in the past, participation in this event will serve as pesticide recertification for the Arkansas State Plant Board and GCSAA education credits will also be awarded. Pesticide CEUs for surrounding states are also available if attendees need those. We will start the day with a trade show and breakfast at 7:30 am, do field tours from 9:00–11:30 am, and then enjoy a delicious, catered lunch. Afternoon sessions, including classes required for pesticide recertification credit, will commence right after lunch. This year, our guest speaker will be Mr. Lee Butler from North Carolina State University (Photo 5). Lee runs the turfgrass disease diagnostic lab at NCSU and is also a prolific researcher in the area of turf disease control. He will be giving several talks during the day on disease diagnostics and fungicide programming and is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. If you have any questions about the field day, do not hesitate to contact us!! If you are not currently on our listserve account, please email Doug Karcher and he can get you added. As field day gets closer, that will be our primary means of communicating all the details. We will also be communicating regularly via Twitter, so follow either of us if you would prefer to get information from that source. We hope to see you in Fayetteville!!

Mike Richardson: mricha@uark.edu @Arkansasturf

Doug Karcher karcher: @uark.edu @uarkturf

PHOTO 5: Lee Butler of NCSU will lead disease diagnostic and fungicide programming talks