03/27/08 Cummings superintendent; sure sign of spring

John Hall started a new job this week as the superintendent of the 11 hundred acre Nancy Cummings Center. Hall is a Pennsylvania native who left Virginia Polytechnic Institute expects University of Idaho facility to become a 'premier center' for Western beef production. Hall comes to Idaho at the time when a number of improvements are being made at Cummings including a new dormitory conference center that should be completed next year. The Cummings Center is focused on beef production costs through such strategies as forage management, feed and reproductive efficiencies and grazing season extension. The water managers with the Treasure Valley's largest irrigation district will open the Boise River head gates at 3 AM Monday morning to begin filling hundreds of miles of canals. It's a sure sign of spring coupled with increased activity in the fields of southwestern Idaho. Nampa-Meridian Irrigation District Superintendent John Anderson says it will take several days for the district's canals to completely fill with water which he says should last until early fall due to the snowpack. Other parts of the state will soon be filling their canal systems as the temperatures continue to warm. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott