Water issues affecting Nebraska will be discussed at the Central Plains Irrigation Conference and Equipment Exposition to be held Feb. 27-28 at the Holiday Inn in Kearney, NE.

An irrigation industry exposition as well as university displays and research information will be part of the conference. Ann Bleed, director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, will address Nebraska water issues in the morning and technical sessions will be held in the afternoon.

The second day, technical sessions and a session on the new Water Optimizer tool (see above item) are set for the morning. Luncheon speakers will be Derrel Martin and Suat Irmak, irrigation specialists and researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. They will talk about what water savings mean and how growers can achieve them. Technical sessions will be held again during the afternoon.

Technical session topics include water management; energy, water and tillage; irrigation management with limited water; subsurface drip irrigation; wastewater utilization; and on-farm center-pivot field demonstrations.
Contact Donna Lamm, Central Plains Irrigation Association, at 785-462-7574 or donnalamm@yahoo.com, or go to www.oznet.ksu.edu/sdi/REevents/cpia.html. Cost: $75 ($85 for continuing education credits).