Throughout the year our local Farm Supplies Stores support our Extension programs with monetary donations, supplies and advertisements which makes them great community partners. In order to sell chemicals and do commercial jobs with chemicals those business must have a staff member with a Commercial Pesticide License. Kentucky State law mandates that everyone with this license must receive continuing educational hours, 9 General and 3 Specific hours every three years.

As a way of saying thanks to our local businesses the Lewis and Fleming ANR Agents have put together an annual training for Commercial Pesticide License holders to receive 3 General and 1 Specific hour every year for Categories 1A, 2, 3, 6, 10, 18, 20. This is offered to our clientele free of charge, our way to say thank you for your support. Other CEU classes will charge as much as $150.00 for an educational event this size.

The 2021 Commercial Pesticide Applicator Continuing Education Training was planned out, promoted and taught by a UK Specialist and the Lewis and Fleming ANR Agents. In order to get approval by Kentucky Department of Agriculture for the CEU hours we covered:  Why ornamentals die & control options, New & emerging issues for corn in Kentucky, What’s bugging my turf, White Oak & management options, Nozzles and easy calibration, Technology to apply pesticide correctly, and Pesticide applicator health and safety.

After the completion of the training all the information was collected by the ANR Agents and the information was forwarded to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture so that the participants would receive their CEU credits.

With Kentucky Department of Agriculture approval, we were able to offer this course on-line via Zoom. This allowed us to reach people across the entire state of Kentucky, saving them travel, time and expenses. The free registration alone saved 209 pesticide applicators a combined total of over $31,000.  The event was recorded and posted on YouTube so that the applicators can review the educational material needed.