It's that time of year again when universities across the south hold their annual field days. That was the case recently when I visited the Mississippi State Research Facility in Starkville.

It was a bright, sunny day with afternoon temperatures reaching into the upper 90's but the heat didn't keep the attendees away. This was the 6th annual event and it had the largest number of registered attendees to date. The large group was divided into two groups: one for landscape professionals and one for members of the golf and sod production industries. There were six morning demonstrations followed by an hour's time to visit with the vendors on site. After lunch. the two groups had two more stops. The golf group had presentations on surface management, herbicide trials, sod production, turf establishment and NTEP trials. There was plenty to see on this hot day and the group tossed out many questions during each presentation.

A big thank you goes out to Jay McCurdy, Ph.D., for putting many of the pieces of this event together, as well as to the entire staff at Mississippi State. It's good to see that there is so much work going on that can benefit our industry going forward. I look forward to next year's visit. I just hope for a cooler day!