2026 Western Kansas Research-Extension Center Fall Field Days: Aug. 25-27

The Western Kansas Research-Extension Centers (WKREC) invite producers, industry partners, and community members to experience applied research firsthand at the 2026 Fall Field Days in Garden City, Hays, and Tribune. These events showcase current research, emerging technologies, and practical management strategies tailored to the conditions of western Kansas. Each field day blends on-the-ground demonstrations with direct conversations between researchers and producers, creating opportunities to ask questions, compare approaches, and take-home insights that can be applied immediately. Each event is detailed below with an accompanying flyer.

Southwest Research-Extension Center Fall Field Day Plus – August 25

The K-State Southwest Research-Extension Center will host its Fall Field Day Plus on Tuesday, August 25, at the center, 4500 E. Mary Street in Garden City. Registration begins at 8 a.m., with activities continuing through 3 p.m.

The morning program will feature two concurrent field tours, with participants able to attend both sessions. Topics on the South Field tour include weed management in corn and grain sorghum, alternative summer legumes, long-term summer hay and silage variety performance, and biostimulants in grain sorghum. The Finnup Field tour will cover water dynamics in a corn-cotton rotation, real-time drone streaming for precision agriculture, cotton variety selection, deficit irrigation, and directed-energy weed management.

Following lunch, indoor presentations will cover water-resilient alfalfa production and a corn and sorghum insect update. The day will conclude with a Kansas Department of Agriculture Core Hour. Continuing education credits are available, including 4.0 hours for Certified Crop Advisers (CCA) and 1.0 hour for Commercial Pesticide Applicators in Category 1A, which also counts as the KDA Core Hour.

See the flyer below for the complete schedule and additional details.

2026 K-State ARCH Fall Field Day – August 26

The 2026 K-State Agricultural Research Center–Hays (ARCH) Fall Field Day will be held Wednesday, August 26, at the Agricultural Research Center, 1232 240th Ave. in Hays. Registration begins at 8 a.m., with the program starting at 9 a.m.

The field day will highlight practical, research-based information for crop, forage, and livestock production in western Kansas. Participants will have an opportunity to tour research plots and hear updates from K-State researchers on several ongoing projects. Topics will include nitrogen management, enhanced-efficiency fertilizers and biostimulants in grain sorghum; integrated crop-livestock systems; pearl millet for forage; finishing beef cattle research; and residual herbicide programs for weed control in grain sorghum.

Following the morning field tours, a free lunch will be provided at 12:30 p.m. Indoor presentations begin at 1 p.m. and will include an update from the Western Kansas Research-Extension Centers and a graduate student research poster competition featuring work in livestock, soil health, cover crops, cropping systems, and weed management.

Registration is requested but not required. See the flyer below for the complete schedule, registration information, and additional details.

 

2026 K-State Tribune Fall Field Day – August 27

The Tribune Field Day is planned for August 27, 2026. The program will begin at 8:30 a.m. Mountain time at the irrigation field. Lunch and a brief preplant wheat school will follow at the fairgrounds.

Explore crop and forage management research for limited-water conditions in western Kansas. Topics will include nitrogen management in dryland sorghum, iron chlorosis and micronutrients in sorghum, limited irrigation strategies for forages and corn hybrids, and wheat variety selection and seeding time management.

Registration is requested but not required. You can register online at: https://wkrec.org/events/field_days/2026/tribune_fall_field_day.html