Each fall, the Owsley County Cooperative Extension Service hosts a meeting for commercial pesticide applicators to help them receive Continuing Education Units so that they can keep their licenses from year to year.  With COVID 19 disrupting in-person meetings, the Agriculture and Natural Resources agent started searching for a ZOOM meeting for the Owsley County applicators, we were successful in joining as a watch party with Spencer and many other counties in November.  Topics for the meeting included:  Diagnosing Plant Diseases, Dealing with Nuisance Wildlife, Pests of Turf and Ornamentals, and Turf grass Updates and Sprayer Calibration.  

There was an excellent turnout as a total of 291 participated on this ZOOM meeting, representing 62 of Kentucky’s counties and included out of state participants from Arkansas and Wisconsin. Owsley County had 9 of our own join in. 

For many participants, this was their first time using ZOOM and comments from a follow-up survey that was given at the end of the meeting reflected the positive attitude that most had during this meeting.  Some of the comments included:  “Presentations were very informative. Nice to be comfortable at home while learning! Felt very one on one, as if I were sitting at a desk with the presenters and they were just explaining something to me. Wonderful experience!”, “Good meeting and very needed due to COVID ... thank you. “You should have virtual option even after Covid is over.”, “My first on line class I enjoyed it good job to all!”, and “Great Training made it much easier to attend.”

Other questions on the survey showed the economic value of the participants to not have to pay a registration fee and to pay travel for the employees to attend trainings that could be many miles away from their work location.  A total of $19,405.00 ($1,800.00 Owsley County) saved was given by those responding to the survey.  Other questions dealt with pesticide safety and 81% said that they would use Proper Protective Equipment as recommended on the label.  When it comes to improving or maintaining good practices in chemical handling, storage, or disposal, 92% said that they would improve their program.  Overall, everyone, including the agent and presenters, were very pleased with this program.