Brookings, S.D. – Community members are invited to attend an open house at the new South Dakota State University (SDSU) Extension Lemmon Regional Center on Aug. 18 from 3 to 5:30 p.m. MT. Located at 401 Sixth Ave. W., the office space is attached to the north end of the Five Counties Nursing Home. Prior to Sept. 28, the Extension office was located in the FJ Reeder Armory at 408 Eighth St. W.

“We are excited about our new center in Lemmon and the opportunities that SDSU Extension continues to provide to our local community and state-wide programming and research efforts,” says Robin Salverson, who has been based out of the Lemmon Regional Center since 2011 and is a Cow/Calf Field Specialist for SDSU Extension.

The Lemmon facility is one of eight regional centers SDSU Extension maintains across the state. As the outreach arm of SDSU and its College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences, SDSU Extension’s mission is to provide non-biased, research-based education and information to citizens across the state. This educational information is categorized across content areas, including: food, families, 4-H youth development, community vitality, agriculture and natural resources.

Light hors d’oeuvres, SDSU ice cream and drinks will be provided as guests tour the new facility and meet the staff at their leisure. Door prizes will be given away throughout the afternoon. Attendees are also invited to bring their water and forage samples in to be “quick” tested for total salts in water and nitrates in forage.

After the open house, everyone is encouraged to attend the Windy Fire Pasture Tour from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The tour will look at the effects the fire had on range and pastureland, the aftermath from the fire and grazing management postfire. Fall grass inventories will also be discussed with current drought conditions.

For more information about the open house and/or the pasture tour, please contact the Lemmon Regional Center team at 605-374-4177.