Private Applicator Trainings are a normal yearly program for Agriculture Agents across the state of Kentucky, but throw in a global pandemic with restrictions on public meetings, distancing guideline, cleaning requirements, and considerations of the health of your clients the meeting format has to adapt drastically.  Private applicator trainings are required for any producer purchasing or applying restricted use chemicals on their farming operation and is valid for 3 years.

During the late winter/early spring of 2020, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture extended the expiration date for all producers that had Private Applicator Certification that expired in 2019, thus the training numbers for those expiring in 2020 increased, but so did the severity of the pandemic.  Extension agents across the state had numerous questions on how to accomplish these training with various meeting room sizes and clients.  For the Fulton and Hickman county producers the Fulton County Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent developed an online training for producers to complete the certification process via ZOOM and complete the training form online via Qualtrics by scanning a QR code.

One hurdle to the process for our counties is reliable internet access, but this was not an issue as the producers helped out on this process.   Most of the large farm operations have faster internet options by being classified a business than most homeowners can obtain.  These operations setup projectors or large TV’s and presented the programming to their workers and close neighbors.  Using this approach 80 producers between Fulton and Hickman Counties were trained using this scenario.  In a survey at the end of the certification form a majority of the producers would attend another online training/meeting again, but indicated they liked in-person trainings over virtual.  In the future, the Fulton County Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent will include a virtual option for Private Applicator Trainings.