MINNEAPOLIS — The three-day Minnesota Crop Pest Management Short Course program and Minnesota Crop Production Retailers Trade Show starts Tuesday, December 11th and continues through Thursday, December 13th. The Crop Pest Management Short Course educational sessions will begin on Wednesday, December 12th from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM and continue on Thursday, December 13th from 8:00 AM to 2:20 PM. The trade show and educational sessions will take place at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The University of Minnesota educational session agendas and session descriptions may be accessed at the Crop Pest Management Short Course website.
The registration fees and online registration for the 2018 Crop Pest Management Short Course and MCPR Trade Show can be accessed at the Minnesota Crop Production Retailerswebsite. Please note that the early pricing discount concludes on Tuesday, November 20th.
Highlights of the three-day Crop Pest Management Short Course
Tuesday, December 11
- MCPR Plenary Sessions (1 pm to 3 pm) with speakers Andy Jung, Senior Director, Market & Strategic Analysis, for The Mosaic Company, discussing the “Structural Changes in the Global Market for Fertilizers” his presentation will provide an overview of the structural changes to the crop nutrient industry that have taken place around the world over the recent past, with a particular focus on the impact on North American markets for N, P and K fertilizers. Greg Wooldridge, is a featured keynote speaker who served the U.S. Navy Blue Angels as Commanding Officer. He will share his demonstrated ability and message “High Performance” to build teams with communication, trust and teamwork which takes precedence over rank and status. Greg will share his methods in order to empower individuals and teams on their journey toward high performance and Michael Stebbins, director of external engagement for the Council for Biotechnology. He will provide a primer “Get to Know GMOs” about what a GMO is (and perhaps more importantly, what a GMO isn’t), what research says about public perception about GMOs, and how people can talk about this technology in a way that will help create meaningful dialogue with other people who want to know more about their food and how it’s grown.
- Information Technical Service Provider (TSP) recertification program from 10 am to 1 pm.
- Pesticide Applicator Recertification sessions will begin with category H (Seed Treatment) on Tuesday afternoon (2:00 to 3:30 pm).
- Trade show opens at 3:00 to 6:30 pm.
Wednesday, December 12
- The CPM Short Course’s General Session will start with the theme “Taking Control.” The program begins at 8:00 and runs until 11:00 am with a great lineup of keynote speakers including:
- Dr. Erin W. Hodgson, Associate Professor and Extension Entomologist, from Iowa State University will provide an update on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices that can impact the economics of upper midwest commodity crop production. Erin will include an overview of regional efforts to manage the Soybean Aphid via IPM methods. This will include the issues of increasing insecticide resistance, loss of insecticide registrations, status of developing soybean varieties with resistance to soybean aphid, advances in scouting, and the role of beneficial insects and other technologies in managing soybean aphid.
- Jean Payne, President of the Illinois Fertilizer & Chemical Association. She is involved in the management of the IFCA including oversight of regulatory and legislative issues that impact the industry as well as programs to provide leadership on nutrient and agrichemical stewardship. Jean will address the topic of Are We Serious About Stewardship? Jean will discuss the IFCA’s efforts in Illinois to be proactive on difficult issues facing the agrichemical industry and how they’ve built trust and transparency with environmental groups as the controversy over dicamba use on soybeans escalates as well as the rise of local environmental regulations from municipalities within Illinois.
- Dr. Micheal Owen, University Professor Emeritus, from Iowa State University Agronomy Department has served as the Principle Investigator on a recently completed, four-year investigation into the integration of human behavioral and agronomic practices to reduce the risk and consequences of herbicide-resistant weeds. Dr. Owen will highlight information from these listening sessions, in conjunction with research findings from the project, to identify the obstacles which are changing farmer behavior with regard to herbicide-resistant weed management. The goal is to understand avenues and ideas with which to address herbicide-resistant weed management by neighbors working together.
- Concurrent educational sessions which will occur from 1:00-5:00 p.m. continue the strong educational program with a wealth of pest, crop and fertilizer management topics including making informed decisions about specialty fertilizer products, emerging new soybean insects such as the soybean gall and corn insect management for 2019. Other sessions will include relationships of new research into corn plant density to corn yields, invasive corn and soybean diseases, herbicide resistance and the spread of Palmer Amaranth in North Dakota and Minnesota.
- Pesticide Applicator Recertification sessions continue (8:00 to 11:00 am) for categories A (Core), C (Field Crop Pest Management) and/or H (Seed Treatment).
- Trade Show runs from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Thursday, December 13
- Concurrent educational sessions will continue from 8:00 am to 2:30 pm and will detail the a number of important agronomic topics including the sound management of urea, variable rate application of phosphorus affecting water quality, update on crop canopy sensing for nitrogen applications in corn, variable rate seeding of soybean, multi-corn hybrid planting and cover crop research results in Minnesota corn-soybean rotations.
- Trade show continues in the morning from 9 to 11 am.
Who should attend the CPM short course?
Agronomists, sales people (seeds, chemicals, fertilizers), crop consultants, crop production specialists, regional and local extension educators, government agency personnel, farm managers, and anyone else who appreciates high quality, research–based professional training.
Continuing education credits
Certified crop advisors will be able to collect a total of 15 CCA continuing education credits over the course of the 3–day program.
Pesticide Applicator Recertification
December 11, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. and December 12, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
These MDA-approved sessions are for applicators that need recertification credit in Categories A (Core), C (Field Crop Pest Management), and/or H (Seed Treatment).
- Category A + C: Attend all December 12th recertification sessions.
- Category A + H: Attend December 11th from 2 pm to 3:30 pm and December 12th recertification sessions from 8 am to 2:45 pm.
- Category A + C + H: Attend all December 11th and December 12th recertification sessions.
Do You Need to Recertify? If you last attended a recertification workshop in 2015 or were newly licensed in 2017, you need to attend an MDA approved workshop in the correct categories in 2018. If you don’t attend a required recertification workshop, you must retest to be eligible to renew your license for 2019. Please contact MDA at 651-201-6615 with recertification or license questions.
Hotel accommodations
The Minneapolis Hilton hotel is offering a special event rate of $112/night if you book before Tuesday, November 20, 2018 or until the room block sells out – whichever comes first. You can make your hotel reservation online or by phone at (612) 376-1000 and giving the code: MCP.
Maps and parking
Minneapolis parking map (with hotels)
Directions to and parking at the Minneapolis Convention Center
35W Construction map (PDF)
— Dave Nicolai, Institute for Ag Professionals Program Coordinator
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