There are many local businesses in the area who are required to have a commercial pesticide license to do their job. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture requires people who have those licenses to maintain them by receiving continuing education units (CEU’s). CEU’s are category specific with the requirements being 9 general hours and 3 specific hours for a total of 12 hours by the end of a 3-year period. These CEU’s can be obtained by attending classes throughout the year, many which can have expensive registration fees and also require time and transportation to get to these classes.  

Several businesses in Lewis and Fleming County area approached the Lewis County ANR Agent and the Fleming County ANR to ask if we could help by providing this much needed course locally.  By attending the meeting locally, this would benefit the businesses, by saving time as well as money because their employees could get the training, they needed locally instead of attending out of the area. To reach a larger audience in our area, the training was planned and set up to help local businesses with the following license categories: 1A Agricultural Pest Control, Plan and Animal, 2 Forest Pest Control, 3 Ornamental & Turf Pest Control, 4 Seed Treatment, 6 Right-of-Way, 10 Demonstration and Research Control, 18 Golf Corse, and 20 Sports Turf.   

The two agents worked and designed a meeting to cover:  pesticide updates and drift, disease control and prevention in turf, lessons we can learn from 2022 weed control issues, sustainable landscaping, new and emerging issues in soybeans, and fungicide and seedling disease issues. Once the topics were confirmed, we applied to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture for their approval for CEU credits. The course was set up as a free webinar and was offered to any business in the state of Kentucky.  

The class had 175 people from across the state in attendance, saving each individual time and money so that they could keep their licenses valid, and they could continue to do their job with current and updated information.  

One attendee stated “Thanks for all your efforts in this. You had the hard part and saved us all a lot of time and gas driving to meetings to collect CEUs.  When asked about your impact, consider this!!!”