5/30/01

Contacts:
Dennis Shannon, Research Farms, (515) 294-1608
Ken Pecinovsky, Northeast Research and Demonstration Farm, (641) 435-4864
George Cummins, ISU Extension, (641) 228-1453
Ed Adcock, Communications Service, (515) 294-2314

NORMAN BORLAUG TO HELP MARK FARM ANNIVERSARY

AMES, Iowa -- A quarter century of agricultural research geared to Northeast Iowa will be marked June 26 at an anniversary celebration that will include a speech by Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug.

The Northeast Research and Demonstration Farm's 25th birthday party will begin at 10 a.m. with displays and booths of the farm's history and milestones. Borlaug, a native of Northeast Iowa, is scheduled to speak at 11 a.m. The farm is located 1 mile south and 1.5 miles west of Nashua.

Gregory L. Geoffroy, the new president of Iowa State University, is expected to attend the celebration as well as Richard Ross, dean of the Iowa State College of Agriculture, and Mark Honeyman, director of the ISU Research and Demonstration Farms. Bill Palmersheim, president of the association that owns the farm, also will speak.

Tours of the farm will run at several times during the day. A Dutch treat lunch will be served at noon.

There will be an afternoon program that will include a wide range of speakers and topics of interest to farmers, homeowners, gardeners, families and youth. Youth programs will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. with Borlaug participating at 1 p.m. Tours of the farm are scheduled from 1 to 5 p.m.

In 1976, the Northeast Iowa Agricultural Experimental Association, owner of the farm, teamed up with Iowa State University's Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station to conduct research on the farm. The association had purchased the 260-acre farm in October 1975.

More than 2,100 individuals and businesses from 20 counties in Northeast Iowa have become members of the farm and association.

After 25 years of research, there are about 7,500 individual plots planted each year and as many as 50 major studies conducted annually (18 of which are long-term studies). The farm also uses neighboring ground for additional research space.

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