Upcoming events foster agricultural education

By ADAM SHEPARD

shepard.95@osu.edu

The end of the year has many pro­duc­ers reflect­ing on the chal­lenges of this past grow­ing sea­son and mak­ing prepa­ra­tions for what will hope­fully be another great year of agri­cul­ture in Fayette County.

With har­vest and most field work in the rearview mir­ror, our atten­tion now turns to edu­ca­tion and prepar­ing you all for the upcom­ing year. There are some excel­lent oppor­tu­ni­ties for edu­ca­tional pro­gram­ming offered by Ohio State Uni­ver­sity Extension.

Here in Fayette County we have a great lineup of speak­ers con­firmed to attend the South­west Ohio Agron­omy Day being held on Jan. 23, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

I was for­tu­nate enough to secure Dr. Bob Nielsen and Dr. Tony Vyn both from Pur­due Uni­ver­sity to talk about corn pro­duc­tion, tillage and compaction.

From Ohio State Uni­ver­sity Dr. Laura Lind­sey will talk about soy­bean pro­duc­tion genet­ics vs. agro­nom­ics and from Ohio State Uni­ver­sity Exten­sion Steve Pro­chaska and Harold Wat­ters will talk about nutri­ent man­age­ment and an update on weed resis­tance in south­ern Ohio.

Harold will also present some data from a study he com­pleted on the effec­tive­ness of cover crops. Reg­is­tra­tion cost for the meet­ing is $25/person which will include lunch and any mate­ri­als the speak­ers wish to distribute.

This pro­gram has also received five Con­tin­ued Edu­ca­tion Cred­its for those of you that are Cer­ti­fied Crop Advi­sors. Reg­is­tra­tion for the pro­gram will close on Jan. 18.

On Jan. 30, we will be offer­ing Pes­ti­cide Appli­ca­tor Train­ing from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Fayette County Agri­cul­tural Ser­vice Cen­ter. More infor­ma­tion and reg­is­tra­tion infor­ma­tion can be found at www.pested.osu.edu.

Fayette County will also serve as a remote site for the Ohio Beef Cat­tle School offered by Ohio State Uni­ver­sity Exten­sion which con­sists of a 3-night pro­gram held on Jan. 29, Feb. 26, and March 19.

As always for more infor­ma­tion about pro­gram­ming or to reg­is­ter for a pro­gram please con­tact the Ohio State Uni­ver­sity Exten­sion Office, Fayette County at 740–335-1150 or email shepard.95@osu.edu.

Neigh­bor­ing coun­ties are also offer­ing a great lineup of pro­gram­ming for this winter.

If there is a spe­cific topic you are inter­ested in please check out www.agcrops.osu.edu for a state wide cal­en­dar of edu­ca­tional pro­gram­ming offered by Ohio State Uni­ver­sity Extension.

One idea that has come quickly down the pipeline is the need for a young agron­omy club in Fayette County.

Some of the ideas that have come out are the use of some of the pro­duc­tion area at the Fayette County Demon­stra­tion Farm for par­tic­i­pants to com­plete plot projects to intro­duce them to small plot research meth­ods along with edu­cat­ing them about a poten­tial career in agriculture.

Our goal is to com­pile a group of young indi­vid­u­als that are inter­ested in learn­ing about agron­omy and agri-business in Fayette County.

More infor­ma­tion to come soon but in the mean­time par­ties inter­ested in learn­ing more or poten­tially being involved in this group should con­tact OSU Exten­sion, Fayette County at 740–335-1150 or email shepard.95@osu.edu.

(Adam Shep­ard is the Agri­cul­ture and Nat­ural Resources Exten­sion Edu­ca­tor, Ohio State Uni­ver­sity Exten­sion, Fayette County.)

Posted by Tina Murdock on Jan 10 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.