Events and Activities : Extension plans commercial manure application training Jan. 7

Commercial manure applicators should plan to attend the Commercial Manure Applicator training program scheduled for Tuesday, January 7, 2014 from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach in cooperation with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources will conduct the required three-hour training workshop at that time. There is no fee to attend the workshop, but commercial applicators must register by December 30, 2013 by contacting the ISU Extension Benton County office at 319-472-4739.

Commercial manure applicators needing to recertify and those wanting to certify for the first time should attend. The workshop will provide the required three hours of annual training and will cover applicator rules, biosecurity issues, foaming pits, and development of manure application rates, and how to read manure plans.

All currently certified commercial manure applicator licenses will expire on March 1, 2014. Commercial applicators can attend training throughout the year, but if they were previously certified, they should plan to attend training and submit the forms and fees to DNR prior to March 1, 2014 to avoid paying the late fees. Certification fees for commercial manure applicators have not changed for 2014. ISU Extension and Outreach will charge a $10 fee to applicators choosing to view the certification materials on a non-scheduled reshow day at the county office. For this reason all applicators are encouraged to attend the workshops or to plan to view training materials on the scheduled reshow date at their local county extension office. The fee will not apply to workshops or scheduled reshow dates.

Please contact the ISU Extension and Outreach office in Benton County to determine which days are scheduled for the manure applicator certification programs. Due to scheduling conflicts, many county extension offices will no longer accept walk-in appointments to watch the training DVDs.

If attending the January 7, 2014 commercial manure applicator program or watching the three-hour DVD is not convenient, commercial applicators may contact their local DNR field office to schedule an appointment to take the certification exam. In addition to needing an appointment to take the exam, applicators must bring a pencil and photo identification, and should plan to bring a calculator.

Commercial manure applicators hauling, handling or land-applying primarily dry or solid manure are encouraged to attend the dry manure applicator workshops scheduled for February 2014. Dates and locations can be found in the link below.

For more information about the commercial applicator program contact the ISU Extension Benton County office at 319-472-4739 or access a list of the training locations at: http://www.agronext.iastate.edu/immag/certification/macprogrampostcard.pdf

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Contacts :

Angela Rieck-Hinz, Agronomy, 515-294-9590, amrieck@iastate.edu