Ohio River Valley Agronomy Day is scheduled at the Mason County Extension Office in Maysville, Ky. The program is free and begins 9 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3. You are asked to RSVP by the end of the day on Monday, Feb. 1, so they can get a lunch count. The number to call is 606-564-6808.
The program will include a mix of topics throughout the day. The will be updates on wildlife control in your crops, disease update, insect issues will be addressed, new pesticides that will be available this year, and controlling weeds. Dr. J.D. Green will do a session on controlling weeds in your hay and pastures. Later Dr. Green will address the issue of managing resistant weeds in crops.
Pesticide and Fertilizer Dates
Last week while in the Brown County office I checked on the numbers for the upcoming classes for Pesticide and Fertilizer, and noticed that only about a third of those with licenses that will expire in March, have signed up for the classes. We need to get the sign ups taken care of soon.
Without a pesticide license a two-hour session will not get you the credit needed for fertilizer certification, for private or commercial. If you do not have a pesticide license you are required to have a three-hour training session. Three hour trainings are available in Pike County 2 p.m. Jan. 26 and Wilmington College on March 11 (note the corrected date). To register in Pike County call 740 289-4837 and Wilmington call 937 382-0901.
The sessions are as follows: Monday, Feb. 8, at North Adams High School. This session will begin 5 p.m. with Fertilizer training until 7 p.m. Then we will break for pizza followed by the pesticide re-certification from 7:30 until 10:30 p.m.
Southern State Community College in Hillsboro. This session begins 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 18 with Fertilizer training until noon. Then we will break for pizza followed by pesticide re-certification from 12:30 until 3:30 p.m.
Southern Hills Board Office on Hamer Rd in Georgetown. This session begins 10 a.m. Monday, Feb. 22, with Fertilizer training until noon. Then we will break for pizza followed by pesticide re-certification from 12:30 until 3:30 p.m.
Remember to pre-register early. You can call 937-378-6716 or you can email Cindy at kratzer.11@osu.edu. Please mail payment to the Brown County Extension office at 325 W. State St. Bldg. B Georgetown, Ohio 45121.
GAP Training for Tobacco Producers
Once again those of you who plan to produce tobacco in 2016 will need to attend a Good Agricultural Practices session. This training is required each year. I will have additional dates announced soon, but the first date will be 1 p.m. Feb. 25 at the Frisch’s in West Union. Seating is limited, so please register early. Later that evening there will be another GAP session in Maysville at the Maysville Community and Technical College beginning 6 p.m.
To register for any of the GAP sessions here locally, please call the Adams County office at 937-544-2339. Barbie will take your registration information for the free GAP training. You can also go to www.gapconnections.com to see additional training sessions.
Fruit and Vegetable Training
Pesticide and Fertilizer training is mostly geared toward traditional agriculture, but there is some more specific training for fruit and vegetable producers coming up on Feb. 2 in Loveland at the Oasis. This will be part of the Southwestern Ohio Fruit, Vegetable and Specialty Crop Conference.
I have fliers in the offices, but the information is also available online at http://go.osu.edu/swohfvsc . The conference begins with opening remarks at 9:15 a.m. and will run until nearly 3:30 p.m.
If you grow fruits and vegetable and you are looking for more information, I think you need to take a look at this conference. It is loaded with options and outstanding speakers. If you do not have the internet, stop by or call one of our local offices. The Adams County office is 937-544-2339, Brown County at 937-378-6716 and Highland County at 937-393-1918. You can call my cell at 937-515-2314.
