Farmers and farm businesses in southeastern Iowa are invited to join the Southeast Iowa Agricultural Research Association and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach on Sept. 8 at the Southeast Research and Demonstration Farm for an open house and ribbon cutting for their new Research and Learning Center building and to celebrate the Southeast Research Farm’s 35th anniversary. The event will start at noon with a complimentary lunch, which will include hamburgers grilled by the Washington County Cattlemen.

Following lunch there will be a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Research and Learning Center building with some comments from special guests from Iowa State University, including President Wendy Wintersteen; John Lawrence, vice president for extension and outreach; Dan Robison, endowed dean’s chair in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Kendall Lamkey, agronomy department chair; and Steve Harris, chair of the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, and the Department of Entomology.

There will also be a presentation looking back at the 35-year history of the Southeast Iowa Agricultural Research Association and the Southeast Research Farm by Tim Goode, Iowa State research farms manager, and a farm update provided by Cody Schneider, Southeast and Muscatine Island Research Farms superintendent.

The day will end with networking, informal discussions, field plot tours and dessert.

The association was founded in 1983 by local farmers from a 21-county area to collaborate with Iowa State on locally relevant research for southeast Iowa. An elected board of directors manages the association, with Iowa State staff coordinating research and demonstrations on the farm.

Anyone can be a member of the association. Membership fees are $25 for five years. Members receive notice of meetings and events and contribute to continuing support of agricultural research in southeast Iowa.

While there is no cost, for those who plan to attend, RSVP by Sept. 6 to help with the headcount for food either by going to https://go.iastate.edu/RWZOHU or by calling the ISU Extension and Outreach Johnson County office at 319-337-2145.

The Southeast Research and Demonstration Farm is located at 3115 Louisa-Washington Road, Crawfordsville, Iowa. To reach the farm, follow U.S. Highway 218 one-and-three-quarter miles south of Crawfordsville, then two miles east on County Road G-62, then three-quarters of a mile north. Signs will be posted near the farm.

Project sponsors included the Washington County Riverboat Foundation, Committee for Agricultural Development, local extension councils and others. If you are interested in contributing to the new Research and Learning Center, contact Ryan Drollette, farm management specialist with ISU Extension and Outreach and treasurer for Southeast Iowa Agricultural Research Association, at 319-337-2145 or seiara@iastate.edu. For more information, contact Schneider at schn145@iastate.edu.