Virginia Tech Tidewater AREC

Congratulations to Ranadheer Reddy Vennam on successfully defending his Ph.D. dissertation, titled "Assessment of Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Responses to Heat and Drought Stress Through Physiological, Machine Learning, and Transcriptomic Approaches", on Thursday, August 13.

Ranadheer completed this milestone under the guidance of his advisor Maria Balota, along with committee members Abhilash Chandel, Joseph Oakes, and David Haak.

A tremendous achievement — and an exciting contribution to advancing climate‑resilient peanut research. Well done, Dr. Vennam! 🎓🌱

Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences

Our soybean agronomy team has an opening for seasonal help! More information and application instructions here: https://bit.ly/SoybeanSeasonalHire

📣 Seasonal Help Wanted! Our soybean agronomy team is looking for a motivated and dependable research assistant/technician to help us through December at the Tidewater AREC. This is an excellent opportunity for someone passionate about agriculture, research, and hands-on fieldwork! For additional details and application instructions, please visit: https://bit.ly/SoybeanSeasonalHire

We enjoyed hosting the Virginia Crop Improvement Association at Tidewater AREC earlier this week. It was a great opportunity to connect researchers and industry partners, share updates from current trials, and strengthen collaboration that supports Virginia’s growers. 🥜🌱

The Virginia Beach and Chesapeake Virginia Cooperative Extension offices welcomed researchers from the Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center (AREC) and Eastern Virginia Agricultural Research & Extension Center for the Southeast Virginia Soybean Field Day at NEXTGEN Farms in Virginia Beach on Monday, August 10. The event connected producers with the latest Virginia Tech soybean research, variety trials, and management recommendations through in-field presentations, plot tours, and networking opportunities designed to support informed production decisions.

Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
Virginia Tech Department of Entomology
Virginia Cooperative Extension - Virginia Beach
Virginia Cooperative Extension - Chesapeake

The 2026 Virginia Cotton Growers Field Day and Tidewater AREC Peanut Tour is coming up on Friday, August 21, 2026 from 8 AM - 4 PM, with lunch provided.
Morning session will be at Tidewater AREC main farm, 6321 Holland Road, Suffolk, VA 23437. Lunch and our afternoon session will be at the 1045 Hare Road, Suffolk, VA 23437 location. Please register here: https://tinyurl.com/CottonFieldDay26

Tidewater AREC hosted field tours yesterday as part of onboarding for new Virginia Cooperative Extension Agriculture & Natural Resources (ANR) Extension Agents statewide. Program participants engaged directly with our faculty, staff, and students and learned about the collaborative resources available through the AREC system.

Field stops included soybeans, cotton, peanuts, precision agriculture, entomology, and plant pathology—showcasing the breadth of research that supports Extension programming across Virginia.

Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Virginia Cooperative Extension-City of Suffolk

Graduate students Mike Wilson and Reagan Riggs have been representing Virginia Tech on the Science for Success student tour this week. On the route from Auburn to Mississippi, they've experienced different agriculture industries, farm tours, and universities in the Southeast — meeting other agronomy students and professionals along the way.

Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Virginia Tech Department of Food Science and Technology