Berry´s Picks

You can always tell when we are getting close to February because many folks start realizing their Private Applicator license is about to expire and that they are short on the required continuing education units required to keep their license. Several years ago, the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) moved everyone’s expiration to February on the 5th year anniversary of their license.

If you have a Private Applicator Certificate or a Private Applicator License, then you are required to have 15 hours of Continuing Education Units every 5 years. Of the 15-hour total, you must receive a minimum of 2 hours of Laws and Regulations and 2 hours of Integrated Pest Management. If you have a Commercial License, you are required to have 5 hours every year including 1 L&R and 1 IPM. For private license holders, if you fail to get the required hours by the anniversary date of your license you have one year to renew with a late fee. After one year, folks with a private applicator license will be required to re-train and re-test. Whichever license you may have with the new testing procedures and requirements, you do not really want to risk letting it run out.

We always offer several programs throughout the year that not only provide great education, but also an opportunity to get those CEU’s. One excellent program we have coming up that is designed to help everyone get needed hours and keep up on the latest pesticide technology and laws is the “Comanche County Crops Program.” This crop program is packed with excellent information and lots of CEU’s. The program will be held Friday, February 16th at the DeLeon City Auditorium. Registration will begin at 8:30 AM and the program will run from 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM. We will be offering 5 total CEU’s, 3 L&R’s and 2 IPM’s. We will also be providing Auxin Training for those that might need it. There is a $50.00 fee and lunch will be provided. Here is the line-up for this program: “Auxin Training”- Dr. Scott Nolte “Crop Scouting Fundamentals for Corn and Cotton”- IPM agent Tyler Mays “New Technologies for Weed and Pest Control in Sorghum”- Dr. Ronnie Schnell “Organic Peanut and Cotton Opportunities and Requirements”- Bob Whitney “TDA Laws and Regulations”- Jason Jones This will be a very valuable training course for both private applicators and commercial applicators. All of the speakers are excellent, and the presentations will be awe-inspiring for all participants. For more information or to preregister for these programs, please call the Comanche County Extension office at 325356-2539. You can also find the flyers at our web page: https://comanche. agrilife.org/ or on our FB page: Comanche County Agriculture.