Lee Greenley Jr. Memorial Research Farm Hosts 47th Annual Field Day Event
By Echo Menges
Novelty, Mo. – Aug. 1, 2024 – The 2024 annual field day event hosted by the Lee Greenly Jr. Memorial Research Farm in Novelty marked 50 years of the Northeast Missouri farm’s existence and 47 years of hosting field day events.
Attendees from across the region gathered to see cutting-edge agriculture science in action, in the field, and through the studies conducted by the University of Missouri’s staff and students on the ground in rural Knox and Shelby counties. The annual event featured studies conducted at the Lee Greenley Jr. and Grace Greenley research farms donated to the university by the late Miss Hortense Greenley in 1969 and 2015, respectively, along with the Ross C. Jones farm, which was donated to the university in 2001 by the late Ross Jones.
“Northern Missouri, we are proud to serve you through our research, our extension, and our teaching programs. I hope you enjoyed seeing that commitment in action today during this field day and our tours,” said Dr. Christopher Daubert, Vice Chancellor and Dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) at the University of Missouri, during his lunchtime address to the crowd.
This year’s educational sessions included informational breakdowns on ticks and cattle, hay management for yield and quality, and genetic predictions for crossbred cattle on the beef and forage management tour. Pest management in soybeans, drones and herbicides, and fungicide application studies in corn and soybeans were featured on the pest management tour. Field evaluations and the efficiency of urea for corn, industrial hemp production, flooding effects on soybeans, and updated nitrogen rate recommendations were featured on the agronomic management tour.
“Everybody in this room learned something new today. I think that’s fantastic. I learned a bunch of new things and I’m anxious to come back next year and learn some more new things. I’m anxious to see some of the research that was done last year, and we learned about the results of that today. They’re doing that same research this year in a completely different climate. You guys are getting rain in a situation where the crop is going to be good, and so the findings may be different. I want to know that next year, so I’ll be back here next year. I want to learn some new things,” said keynote speaker Richard Fordyce, former Missouri Director of Agriculture and past Administrator of the Farm Service Agency (FSA) in Washington, D.C.
The annual Greenley Field Day events are free to the public. Attendees are also given the chance to see the latest agriculture equipment set up by various vendors on the grounds and treated to complimentary breakfast and lunch, which is traditionally catered by Noland’s Catering of Macon.