NDSU Department of Plant Sciences faculty researcher Burton Johnson and master’s students Swarup Podder, Nicholas Steffl and Kyle Aasand presented results from their respective research programs at the 29th annual Association for the Advancement of Industrial Crops meeting in Ames, Iowa, Sept. 10-13.

Podder, Steffl and Aasand each received a $1,000 travel award from the association to attend the meeting.

Podder presented “Screening Forage Sorghum Genotypes for Cold Tolerance” in the poster session.

Steffl and Aasand presented results from their cover crop research in corn and soybean cropping systems in the oilseed division. Steffl presented “Relay Cover Crops in Soybean Cropping Systems in Eastern North Dakota” and Aasand presented “Corn Relay Cropping with Winter Rye, Field Pennycress, and Winter Camelina.”

Johnson, professor and sunflower, minor and new crop production project leader, presented “Seeding Date, Cultivar, and Seed Treatment Effects on Industrial Hemp Stand Establishment in North Dakota” in the fiber and cellulosic crops division.

Podder, from Bangladesh, is advised by Marisol Berti, professor and forages and biomass production project leader in the Department of Plant Sciences. Steffl, from Callaway, Minnesota, and Aasand, from Carrington, North Dakota, are advised by Johnson.

More than 50 public and private researchers from across the United States and around the world attended the meeting. The association is an international, nonprofit educational and scientific organization established to encourage and promote the activities of those involved in the production, processing, development and commercialization of industrial crops and products derived from industrial crops.

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