By Warren Pierson, Brent Pringnitz
Iowa State University Extension and Outreach will offer a Field Crop Scout School on Saturday, March 7, in the Scheman Building at the Iowa State Center in Ames. Designed for beginning crop scouts, the day-long course features sessions on crop growth and development, weed, disease and insect identification, and scouting methods and techniques.
“Crop scouting is critical to identifying what’s happening in the field,” said Mark Licht, cropping systems agronomist with ISU Extension and Outreach. “In-season and post-season corrective management decisions can be made to increase productivity and profitability from well informed crop scouting.”
Extension field agronomists will provide crop scouting tips and tricks, an overview of plant and pest samples, specific crop scouting skills and a review of the main concepts. ISU Extension specialists, field agronomists and staff will be available to review samples and answer questions. Instructors for this day-long Field Crop Scout School include:
- Erik Christian, agronomy lecturer, Iowa State
- Bob Hartzler, weed specialist, ISU Extension and Outreach
- Erin Hodgson, entomologist, ISU Extension and Outreach
- Mark Johnson, field agronomist, ISU Extension and Outreach
- Mark Licht, cropping systems agronomist, ISU Extension and Outreach
- Daren Mueller, plant pathologist, ISU Extension and Outreach
- Virgil Schmitt, field agronomist, ISU Extension and Outreach
Registration opens at 8 a.m. with sessions beginning at 8:30 a.m. and adjourning at 4 p.m. Space is limited; registration must be completed before midnight, Feb. 27. Cost is $100 and includes field guides, course handouts, lunch and breaks. Register with a credit card online at www.aep.iastate.edu/scout. Or
print a flier and mail the registration.