As new auxin technologies are being commercialized, our Using Pesticides Wisely efforts are also progressing rapidly. Comments below address several questions many agents have been asking.
1. Using Pesticides Wisely Classroom Training. The Georgia Department of Agriculture has developed a web-site for our Using Pesticides Wisely effort www.agr.georgia.gov/24c.aspx. Now, each of you or your clientele can visit the site to determine class participation. Of special note, growers who attended the training during 2015 plus everyone who attended during 2016 should be in the site. For agents, consultants, and dealers attending in 2015, those names are being added currently. For 2017, names from all trainings will be submitted simultaneously after the last training on March 14.
2. One-on-one training. Agents are definitely on the move with their own trainings in recent days. We continue to believe this is the most important and impactful component in achieving our overall goal. Mock one-on-one trainings will occur on Feb 7 with Culpepper, Utley, and Parker as an agent training on zoom which should be archived for viewing at your convenience. However, we have been clear that you are king/queen of your county and you are strongly encouraged to follow the process that works best for you and your applicators. Our ultimate goal is to reach the applicator and help them make wise decisions.
3. Credit Hours. The Using Pesticides Wisely Classroom training is providing 3 hours of credit while the one-on-one training will provide 1 hour of credit; assuming each of you take proper documentation (it will take me time to get all these names into GDA so don’t make any promises on how fast it will occur). For those individuals without a pesticide license who attended the classroom training, they will still receive a status showing they attended the class on the website although there is no credit provided since they do not have a license.
A couple of interesting scenarios can happen making it look like one is not getting full credit hours for the classroom training. For example, if I have 1 hour of credit on my card when I take the classroom training then I can only get 2 additional hours before my card “resets”. A second example might be someone who takes the training just before the card expires and “resets” in which it may not show up on the new cycle.
The impact for our collective efforts over the past two years is visible throughout the state, without question. Please continue the aggressive nature of sharing valued unbiased research information with your clientele having the goal of helping them make wise decisions when applying all pesticides. Also, let’s encourage each individual to obtain a pesticide license to further improve their knowledge about pesticides which will improve the long-term sustainability of agriculture.
Weed Science Information (Row Crops/Vegetables) for County Extension Agents
