Chengci Chen, agronomist and superintendent of Montana State University's Eastern Agricultural Research Center (EARC) in Sidney, Montana, will be presenting data of his research results of nitrogen and irrigation management affecting sugarbeet root yield and sucrose concentration at MonDak Ag Days, Friday, March 4 at 11 a.m. Mountain Time.
Chen has been working on pea, lentil, and chickpea crops for 20 years in Montana and has performed extensive research on sugarbeet and cereal grains for the past six years at EARC.
"Sugarbeets are the most important cash crop in this valley. Sugarbeet growers get paid not only based on the tonnage of root yield, but also on the sucrose concentration in the root. Nitrogen and water management affects both root yield and sucrose concentration," says Chen.
On March 4, Chen will demonstrate how the nitrogen fertilizer affects root yield and sucrose concentration as well as discuss how growers can make decisions relating to nitrogen management. He will also show growers spring wheat and durum variety performance, so growers can make decisions on what varieties will grow best on their farms.
He will also present on spring wheat and durum wheat variety performance under dryland and irrigated conditions.
Chen hopes to generate thinking with his presentation and wants to discuss what would work best for specific operations.
"I would like to see more growers in the meeting so that we can discuss what works and what doesn't work in this region and any emerging issue the growers and researchers need to deal with," he says.