The Michigan State University Extension field crops team is excited to bring you our first Field Crops Scouting School. Do you have interns or entry level scouts who could use some extra training on how to scout? Summer is a busy time and it's easy to throw interns out thinking they know the basics, but have they been trained? Do they know how to scout properly and when they should be looking for different things? Send them to this scouting training that extends over three dates during different parts of the growing season to give them in-season training. The goal is they will be scouting the pests they will be seeing in the field around that time. Keeping in mind no two seasons are the same.
Participants will move through this three-part training program in a cohort throughout the growing season. The sessions will be held at the Saginaw Valley Research and Extension Center:
1. May 1, 8:30 a.m. – 3 p.m
- Lunch included
- Basics covered: weed identification, scouting patterns, nutrient deficiencies, etc.
- Wheat scouting with Dennis Pennington, Michigan State University (MSU) Extension wheat specialist: staging wheat, wheat diseases, any nutrient deficiencies, etc., in our wheat plots.
2. June 5, 8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.
- Disease scouting with Marty Chilvers, MSU Extension plant pathologist.
3. July 31, 8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.
- Scouting for insects (damage, egg masses, etc.) with Chris DiFonzo, MSU Extension field crops entomologist.
Throughout the three sessions, MSU Extension field crops educators with years of experience scouting will also be helping and teaching. The program is designed to be real-life in the field scouting, so the sessions have been set up around the typical timing for different issues.
Click here to read more msu.edu
Photo Credit: michigan-state-univsersity-msu-extension
Categories: Michigan, Crops, Education