For the second straight year, the Using Pesticides Wisely program will be offered in a virtual format amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The training, which is offered by the University of Georgia (UGA) Cooperative Extension and Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA), will be offered on 11 different dates in March and April.
University of Georgia Extension weed specialist Stanley Culpepper provides insight on what farmers and their applicators can expect when attending this year’s training.
“Like every year, part of our Using Pesticides Wisely Training platform is to bring all of our applicators up to date on our challenges and share information to help them overcome those challenges. This year’s training will focus on a lot of different topics,” Culpepper said. “We’re going to make sure everybody’s really comfortable with the new Dicamba labels. That’s had some significant changes, so we’re going to make everybody comfortable with those new changes. We’re going to focus on topics to help every grower achieve their objective of keeping every pesticides on target.”
He added that additional topics will include the Paraquat training that is now required by the Environmental Protection Agency, herbicide resistance and farmer health.
“Everything that we’re focusing on this year is important to anyone if they think pesticides are a critical tool to their sustainability as they search to feed, produce feed, food and fiber for the world,” Culpepper said.
UGA Extension and the Georgia Department of Agriculture created the UPW trainings in 2015.
Trainings Schedule
The trainings schedule is as follows:
March 8 5:30 p.m.
March 11 9 a.m.
March 15 5:30 p.m.
March 18 9 a.m.
March 22 5:30 p.m.
March 25 9 a.m.
March 29 5:30 p.m.
April 1 9 a.m.
April 5 5:30 p.m.
April 8 9 a.m.
April 12 5:30 p.m.
Each individual applicator must pre-register to attend the training. Registration is permitted up to two hours prior to the training. No trainings will be offered after April 15 for the 2021 season.