MANCHESTER, Iowa — Confinement site manure applicators should plan to attend a two-hour workshop offered by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to maintain or renew their confinement site manure applicator certification. The joint Delaware and Dubuque county workshop will be offered on February 14 at 1:30 p.m. at Farmtek in Dyersville.
“Iowa law requires confinement site manure applicators to attend two hours of continuing education each year of their three-year certification period or take and pass the exam once every three years,” said Dan Andersen, associate professor, ISU Ag and Biosystems Engineering and coordinator of the manure applicator certification program. “If applicators fail to attend the two hours of continuing education each year, they will be required to pass a written exam to be eligible to recertify.” Each year nearly 200 confinement site applicators fail to attend training and must pass the remedial exam prior to being eligible to renew their certification for the following year.
The workshop serves as initial certification for those applicators that are not currently certified, recertification for those renewing licenses and as continuing education for those applicators in their second or third year of their license.
The 2019 Confinement site program will include rules for applicators as well as land-application and setback distance requirements, water quality, and timing of manure, DOT road rules, and DNR’s top violations.
Operators must be certified to handle, transport, and apply manure if the confinement livestock operation has more than a 500-animal unit capacity unless the manure is applied by a commercial manure applicator. The certification fee is $100 for a three-year certificate. This fee is paid when applicators initially get certified and then every three years when they re-certify to apply manure.
Confinement site applicators are also required to pay an annual education fee of $25. All fees and application forms must be sent to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to complete certification requirements.
All applicators are encouraged to attend the workshop. Please contact the county extension office to view training materials on a scheduled reshow date.
Applicators have another option for certification; online certification, which an applicator can take their training on-line at DNR MAC eLearning site at https://elearning-dnr.iowa.gov/. The applicator will need to sign-in and get an A&A account.
Applicators are encouraged to complete certification requirements annually prior to March 1 to meet certification deadlines and avoid being assessed a $12.50 late fee for re-certification.
For more information about meeting dates and locations, or to schedule an appointment to attend training, contact the ISU Extension and Outreach Delaware County office at 563-927-4201 or visit http://www.agronext.iastate.edu/immag/certification/confinementsitebrochure.pdf to see the 2019 workshop schedule.
— Iowa State University Extension and Outreach
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