OMAFRA: Virtual Diagnostic Days series continues

A weekly report prepared by the staff of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA).  If you require further information, regarding this report, call the Elora Resource Centre at 519-846-0941.  Office hours: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For technical information, call the Agricultural Information Contact Centre at 1-877-424-1300 or visit the OMAFRA website: www.ontario.ca/omafra

September 18, 2020

2020 ONTARIO VIRTUAL DIAGNOSTIC DAYS

The annual Ontario Field Crop Diagnostic Days held at Ridgetown, Elora and Winchester have been a huge success for many years because of the commitment from participants, sponsors, speakers and volunteers to offer superior infield, hands on agronomy training. COVID-19 has created many unique challenges and the safety of all those involved is of utmost concern. Although the summer in-field Ridgetown, Elora and Winchester events have been cancelled, the organizing committees have decided to combine Southwest Crop Diagnostic Days, Elora Crop Diagnostic Day and Eastern Ontario Crop Diagnostic Day (Winchester) into a new provincial diagnostic video series with support from RealAgriculture and our sponsors.

This Ontario Virtual Diagnostic Days Series will consist of eight 1-hour episodes occurring every two weeks through October 21, 2020. Each episode will highlight a general field crop agronomic theme and will be available on RealAgriculture and fieldcropnews.com. Plus, all episodes will be available in our main podcast feed.

This series is being brought to you by the partnership of the event organizing committee and OMAFRA and University of Guelph, OSCIA.

The organizing committee thanks the following sponsors for their contribution to the series: Grain Farmers of Ontario, Agris Coop, BASF, Bayer/Dekalb, Corteva/Pioneer, Great Lakes Grain, Mosaic, Syngenta and Continuing Education Credits.

Historically, these in-person diagnostic days have provided some of the best opportunities for Certified Crop Advisors (CCA) to acquire a broad range of Continuing Education Credits (CEU).

Register for CCA Credits at bdc.ridgetownc.com/useservices/conferencemanagement/southwest-crop-diagnostic-days/

Certified Crop Advisors will be able to collect eightCEUs by registering for the event.  CEU registration is a requirement and open until Dec. 1. This will allow us to process CEU credit requests. A CEU code will be provided at end of each episode.

Registration fees for CEU credits:

– $100 (includes HST) for eight CEU credits. A receipt/confirmation email will be provided; and

– GFO Farmer-Members participate free

New this year, all Grain Farmers of Ontario farmer-members can participate in this innovative diagnostic and management series free of charge, thanks to the sponsorship of Grain Farmers of Ontario.

For an event schedule and online episodes visit fieldcropnews.com/2020/08/2020-ontario-virtual-diagnostic-days/

Written by the OMAFRA Field Crop Team.