IN-DEPTH AGRONOMY TRAINING PROVIDES VALUABLE INFORMATION
ON DICAMBA
n November 2 and 3, I attended the In-Depth Agronomy Training in Manhattan. These events occur every other year and are quite valuable to me in professional development. The Thursday event focused on dicamba, which has dominated the crop production news for much of the past year (or even more). Dallas Peterson, State Weed Specialist, gave his viewpoints and was followed by two representatives from the Kansas Department of Ag. Their presentation was eye-opening. After hearing them, I believe most producers will not be pleased if they feel like they had spray drift issues. The meeting was wrapped up with a discussion on temperature inversions and their impact on dicamba by Kansas Mesonet Manager Chip Redmond. I asked Chip how often inversions occur thinking he might say once or twice a week at most. His answer was they occur nearly every day. This was stunning.
- On November 6, I met with the Banker’s Award Committee at the USDA Service Center in Girard. The meeting went fairly smoothly, but my main takeaway was the extreme lack of Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) personnel left in Southeast Kansas. Randy Bennett, longtime Crawford County District Conservationist retired in October and they are not replacing him at this time. In fact, in four counties (Bourbon, Crawford, Cherokee, and Labette) there are three total staff NRCS staff members when the traditional staffing would be at least seven.
- On October 30 through November 2, I attended Annual Conference in Manhattan. The event actually began with a pre-event where Ag Agents, both new and seasoned were invited to meet their respective specialists on campus. I attended the Plant Science tour and met with Mark Mayfield in the herbarium, Andrew Stammer in the soil testing lab, and with multiple folks in the plant diagnostics lab. New for me this year was an opportunity to present at one of the breakout sessions on our work with the high tunnel project. I felt like the presentation was well received and had feedback confirming such. The event wrapped up with the annual awards ceremony in which multiple Wildcat District staff were honored.
- On November 16, our Ag & Natural Resources Program Development Committee (PDC) met in Parsons at the Chinese Chef. Unfortunately, only two members attended other than staff. We have struggled mightily with attendance at our Ag PDC meetings, and I know I speak for the whole Ag & Natural Resources staff in saying that if anyone has any suggestions to improve participation, we would be glad to hear them.
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