By Ben Nuelle
The Integrated Crop Management Conference is coming up next week. ISU will host an Integrated Crop Management Conference Wednesday December 2nd and Thursday Dec 3rd at the Scheman Building on the Iowa State campus.
Allison Robertson is associate professor and extension fields crop pathologist at ISU. She said this is the 27th year for the conference.
?Basically this is a two day conference and we have several speakers from Iowa State. But another thing that we do is that we invite speakers from the surrounding states or from the Corn Belt to come and talk to predominantly certified crop advisors but there will be some farmers here as well,? Robertson said.
Robertson said it?s good to have out-of-state invited speakers because to bring a different prospective.
?It?s nice to invite someone else in who comes with a slightly different prospective who maybe explains things a little bit different. Who maybe is doing slightly different research to what I am doing. So it gives the attendee a wider view of the situation on whatever the crop production practices that person is talking about,? Robertson said.
She said the goal is to present up to date information on crop production practices.
?So it will be things like weed management, insect pest management, disease management, information on tillage practices and planting rates; anything you can think of to do with crop production predominantly related to corn and soybeans,? Robertson said.
Robertson said it?s extremely important to stay up-to-date on best management practices.
?It?s important to stay up-to-date on crop production practices just to optimize yields so genetics are constantly changing. There is resistance to serious pests and pathogens. Right now we have a big resistance to herbicides and so we are having to change our herbicide programs in our fields and therefore protect our yields,? Robertson said.
Registration for the event is required. You must register by November 30th. Again, the Integrated Crop Management Conference is Wednesday December 2nd and Thursday December 3rd at the Scheman building at the ISU campus.
