Winter meetings and Master Gardener classes

Only a few producers are still growing horticultural crops at this time of the year, although there are a few folks who have figured out that you can grow vegetables all winter long in hoop houses… and make money with them too! But for the most part, growers take the season off and start planning for next year’s crop. They also like to pick up new information during the winter months to help them grow better crops.

One way that they learn and plan for the future is by attending winter meetings. Extension holds a number of meetings, and they are well-attended by growers. In this week’s column, I thought I would mention a few that you might want to watch out for.

The big one for produce growers is the Great Plains Growers Conference, held each January in St. Joseph. I am going to cover that meeting in greater detail in my next column, but wanted to mention the dates. Next year’s conference will be Jan. 5-7, 2012.

Another winter meeting that is held in almost every county in our Northwest Extension Region is our annual Ag Update. This meeting provides a good opportunity to obtain or renew your private applicators license. If you intend to purchase and apply restricted use agricultural chemicals to your land, you will need this license.

But Ag Updates are much more than renewing your pesticide license. At each meeting, one of our regional Agronomy Specialists gives updates on issues of concern to agronomic growers, such as insects and diseases of field crops and pastures. One of our livestock specialists will be there to discuss recent problems and research of interest to livestock producers. An agriculture business specialist will be there to discuss ways to improve the financial picture of your farm. Finally, a regional horticulture specialist will discuss a topic of interest to landowners.

The dates for the Ag Update meetings have not been set yet, but they usually are held in January or February.

Livestock producers will be interested in the Northwest Missouri Beef Conference, which will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, in King City. For those interested in crops, there is the Certified Crop Advisor’s meeting in St. Joseph, to be held on Jan. 17-18, 2012.

There are many more opportunities to attend Extension meetings. The best way to keep up to date on all Extension meetings is on our calendar at our regional web site. The Northwest Extension Region web page can be found at: http://extension.missouri.edu/nwregion.

Finally, before I close, I would like to mention our Master Gardener classes. These are held every spring in the Northwest Extension Region. They run for 12 weeks, starting in the first part of March. If you are interested in this in-depth training on all aspects of horticulture, keep the classes in mind, and watch my future columns for details.

For more information on any of these meetings, please give me a call at 660-663-3232.