Local ag producers and community members recently got a chance to check out the work underway at the University of Wyoming’s Powell Research and Extension Center.

The center hosted its annual Field Day at the end of June, showcasing its facilities and the various trials taking root in its fields.

Across its roughly 200 acres, the center has 18 different species growing this summer. They range from typical Big Horn Basin staples like barley, beans and sugar beets to corn and sunflowers to black-eyed peas and camelina.

The center’s primary focus is on research that benefits area growers, and farm manager Sam George said most of the current trials involve commodity-style or large-scale crops.

Exploring drone tech

The June 30 field day included tours, kids activities and a demonstration of new technology that allows herbicides and other chemicals to be deployed by drone.

Most ground rigs put down 15 gallons of spray per acre, George said, using a concoction that’s mostly made up of water with a little bit of active ingredient. In contrast, a drone only uses about 2-3 gallons of a more concentrated formula on each acre.

“So there’s a lot of questions [from farmers] of, ‘How effective is that? How much of the leaf is it actually covering?’” George said. 

“Spray paper” was deployed for the demo, which turns blue when wet. That allowed observers to easily compare the droplet pattern from a traditional rig and the drone, and George said growers provided a lot of positive feedback.

Meanwhile, a separate trial at the center is aimed at determining whether it’s possible to accurately estimate sugar beet yield using drone-mounted, ground-penetrating radar. The ag industry currently uses airborne radar to project peanut harvests, “and they figure if they can do it in peanuts, they should be able to do it in sugar beets,” George explained.

Working with partners

The center is also growing some alternative crops in partnership with Briess, including winter wheat and oats, and experimenting with different varieties of malt barley to see how they fare. George noted that a couple of the experimental barley varieties “just totally died, and that’s part of the reason why we do these in small strips like that,” he said, “so that doesn’t happen to a farmer’s field.”

Another trial — being conducted with Simplot, Big Horn Co-op and Pioneer Seeds — involves different varieties of corn with growing periods ranging from 77 to 101 days.

“It’s mostly a demonstration trial for farmers to come out and look at the varieties and see how they’re growing for their different needs,” George explained. He noted that dairy farmers have different requirements from cattle farmers seeking grain, sheep farmers wanting silage, etc.

Another field featured lima beans — plus 400 varieties of mung beans sprouting in tiny, foot-long trials. The field had “a huge amount of weeds,” George noted, because the two bean types don’t tolerate traditional herbicides; he compared the weedy field to a cleaner one nearby, where the chemicals had been applied.

“That’s why we use so many chemicals in agriculture,” he told the tour group, “because without them we would not have the food security that we have today.”

Elsewhere on the UW farm, a couple other experiments are examining how much damage certain chemicals inflict on sugar beets and beans, “because no matter how well it controls the weeds, if it hurts the crop, it’s not worth it,” George said.

Black-eyed peas and camelina

Some of the more unusual plants being grown at the center include black-eyed peas and five different varieties of sunflowers.

George said local growers have expressed interest in growing sunflowers again, while the pea research stems from a national shortage of the legumes.

“Most of the [black-eyed pea] seed right now is currently grown in Colorado, but they’re struggling with water and also with disease down there,” he said, adding, “We have a lot of experience growing seed crops here [in Powell], so they’re just evaluating how well these can do up here.”

The center grew a couple small plots of black-eyed peas last year and wasps ate the plant’s flowers, George said. With this year’s crop, he expects to learn whether wasps are particularly attracted to the pea’s flower.

Another crop that’s not a household name, camelina, is being grown in partnership with Bayer, the multinational German company. Camelina can be used to create biodiesel or jet fuel, and “in Europe, they can get carbon credits for growing camelina,” George explained.

Bayer wants to see if it can grow the crop in slightly tougher regions of Europe, George said, and the Powell area tends to offer a similar climate for study.

The center is also continuing to participate in a multi-state Cooperative Dry Bean Nursery. George described the partnership as amounting to, “If you’ll plant my bean, I’ll plant yours.” The hope is that a bean developed for, say, Texas, may wind up thriving in Wyoming.

George says that’s unlikely, “but sometimes you get surprises like that.”

For more about the Powell Research and Extension Center, visit uwyo.edu/uwexpstn/centers/powell.