Prairie CCA - Members

Fall 2003: Prairie CCA Corner

At the time of writing this article, I'm in the midst of 2 weeks of CEU training programs for CCA's through Crop Diagnostic Schools. These have become a popular forum for crop advisors to update themselves on latest developments and techniques, and to pick up credits at the same time. But many CCA's have informed us that not all training events meet expectations. Three of the major problems identified are:

repetition of previous training (41%).
information was irrelevant to your work (17%).
information was too technical (10%).

As a result, new objectives have been suggested in order to prompt appropriate technical training. However, the onus is on training institutions (universities, colleges, consultants) or in-house trainers to rise to the challenge in offering such advanced topics. Here is a sampling of topics warranting attention:

mode of action and breakdown of herbicides, fungicides and insecticides.
nitrogen mineralization - release, immobilization and new soil tests.
agronomic basics of potatoes, corn, soybeans, dry beans, sunflowers (including nutrition, physiology, growth and development, water use, pathology).
manure management for planners.
weather risk and management.
on-farm testing.

The CCA bar has been set high with on-going training becoming recognized as a key feature of the program.

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