Agricultural News
OSU's New Small Grains Specialist - David Marburger - Arrives Just in Time for Oklahoma Harvest
Fri, 01 Jul 2016 08:39:06 CDT
Oklahoma wheat producers may have seen a new face pop up during recent field days or as they were harvesting their crop this summer. Dr. David Marburger has joined the Oklahoma State University staff as a small grains specialist and will lead the university's wheat variety trial program across the state.
Marburger originally hails from Illinois. He earned an undergraduate degree in crop sciences from the University of Illinois and completed his graduate work at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He worked in a similar applied research and variety trial program as part of the Wisconsin extension system.
Marburger arrived in Oklahoma just in time for this year's wheat harvest and says the producers he talked to were very pleased with both the yield and quality of this year's crop.
"A lot of producers are really happy with the yields this year," he says. "They were saying they will - in their lifetime - never see yields this good again. And I hope they are wrong."
The OSU wheat variety trial program had 20 plots around Oklahoma this year. Marburger says all have been harvested and data for 16 of the plots is averaging 60 bushels per acre with test weights averaging 50 lbs. per bushel. Top varieties in the OSU wheat trials include OSU's own Bentley, Gallagher and Iba, as well as WB Grainfield and TAM 204.
Marburger says one of the biggest differences he sees between Oklahoma wheat production and northern states he's worked in previously is the need for dual-purpose wheat.
"Adding the cattle into the equation when we're trying to produce our wheat - I don't want to call it a foreign concept, but something definitely new than what is done in terms of wheat production further north."
Looking ahead, Marburger says he hopes to increase the number of trial sites in the state, but a lot of the research his team will do will remain the same - evaluating different varieties, comparing fungicide-treated and non-treated fields and improving dual-purpose production methods.
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear Marburger talk more about the OSU wheat variety trial program.
Marburger will join Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays for the weekly In the Field segment on KWTV News9 in the Oklahoma City area on Saturday morning at 6:40 a.m.
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