Ninety-two farmers received Restricted-Use (RU) Pesticide Certification training this program year at eight Todd County Extension pesticide educational programs.  As always, safety when handling chemicals was a major emphasis of these sessions, along with proper pest identification so that appropriate control methods may be utilized.  In these trainings, farmers were reminded about the importance of the pesticide label and how to read it to get the information they need to safely and effectively use a given chemical.  Other topics emphasized included the environmental concerns related to farm chemical use, and the importance of proper spray calibration.

     I continue to remind producers of the changes that have occurred in the Federal Worker Protection Standards (WPS) affecting farm laborers.  The most recent changes took effect on January 1, 2018, so producers may not remember them.  In Todd County, tobacco and vegetable farmers are those most impacted by these changes.  WPS rules now mandate that field workers receive WPS training every year, prior to their starting work.  In the past, they were only required to have training once every five years, and they could work five days before being trained.  Under the new rules, the number of topics that must be covered for workers has expanded from 11 to 23.  These are just a few of the dozens of WPS rules that have changed in recent years.  My goal is to continually utilize the opportunity of Pesticide Certification Training to keep farmers up to date on WPS requirements.

     Another topic that we spend extra time on in the Todd County trainings is rotating pesticide groups to slow or avoid the development resistant pest populations.  Kentucky (and Todd County) already has significant populations of resistant pests--particularly weeds.  Glyphosate-resistant marestail is probably our most common resistant weed; but we also have resistance issues with Italian ryegrass, Palmar amaranth, waterhemp, etc.    Farmers tend to be pragmatic--they like to use what works.  But the increase in herbicide-resistant weeds is helping many of them understand how their chemical choices can be a factor in the development of resistant pests.

     Todd County has several hundred acres of fruit and vegetable crops.  Specialty crop growers could easily see resistance issues develop with insecticides and fungicides.  These crops generally require numerous applications of pesticides, and if chemical group rotation is not practiced on fruits and vegetables, pest resistance to specialty crop chemicals could rapidly develop.   

     For some reason, some of Todd County’s Pesticide License records were lost this year from the state pesticide database.  We discovered this about two thirds of the way through “winter training season.”  Fortunately, the Todd County staff assistant had saved a recent copy of the Todd County training records.  She was able to compare the state database with our database and determine the farmers who were not in the state database.  These farmers had not been notified that their licenses had expired.  We were able to contact them and see that they received training this winter.