2019 Field School for Ag Professionals — July 30-31 in St. Paul

The 2019 Field School for Ag Professionals will be held on July 30 — 31 at the University of Minnesota Agriculture Experiment Station in St. Paul. The Field School for Ag Professionals is a summer training opportunity that combines hands-on training and real world field scenarios. The two-day program focuses on core principles in agronomy, entomology, weed and soil sciences on the first day to build a foundation for participants; and builds on this foundation with timely, cutting-edge topics on the second day.

Twelve Certified Crop Advisor CEUs will be offered over the two days of field school

The University of Minnesota Institute for Ag Professional’s Field School offers an opportunity to enhance troubleshooting and crop management skills in specially designed plots that display actual cropping situations. A key feature of the Field School is the small learning groups to enhance the learning experience. Register early (by July 26th to receive the early registration discount) also enrollment is limited to 120, so early registration is encouraged as the Field School fills up! You may choose to attend either day or both days of the field school.

The first day’s program will be held on July 30 with registration starting at 8:00 a.m., orientation beginning at 8:45 a.m. and the individual sessions starting promptly at 9:00 a.m. The first day program will consist of herbicide mode of action and crop injury symptoms, corn and soybean growth and agronomics, identification of insects and the injury they cause in field crops, and sampling for soil fertility strategies to reduce variability when understanding the what, why, where, when and how of soil sampling.

The second day’s program, held on July 31 starting at 8:00 a.m., will consist of multiple concurrent sessions, allowing participants to obtain six certified crop advisor CEUs . Participants can self-select from a menu of session topics ranging across all four major agronomy disciplines which are designed to be timely, cutting-edge topics for today’s ag professionals.

Participants may attend up to six of the following sessions on Day 2:

• Managing soybean in a tight economic environment.
• New and old tools for monitoring insect pests.
• Understanding yield formation among corn hybrids to mitigate agronomic and environmental stressors.
• Winter injury of alfalfa: Emergency forage strategies for livestock producers.
• Crop diagnostics for soybean, corn, alfalfa and small grain.
• Small grain growth and development.
• Principles of weed seedling and mature weed identification.
• Corn rootworm management updates for 2019.
• What are the critters up to? How to interpret soil health tests.
• Management options for insecticide-resistant soybean aphid.

This program is targeted towards agronomists, crop production retailers, seed dealers, consultants, crop protection industry representatives, Extension educators, government agency personnel, and summer field scouts. Participants will have the opportunity to enhance their troubleshooting and crop management skills in specially designed plots that display actual cropping situations.

Detailed descriptions and online registration can be found under Session descriptions and speakers on the Field School for Ag Professionals webpage.