Thursday, September 29, 2011

Thursday


A poster asked this morning on Crop Talk whether or not the CCA is worth keeping? That is a good question.

The Certified Crop Advisor Program was initiated in the early 90's to certify those of us who serve farmers or farm ourselves. It's a way to track and prove education, something always valuable, especially if a lawsuit arises involving such parties in the industry.

It is quite a task to take and keep track of the classes and categories although the American Society of Agronomy does a good job of administering the program. The burden of proof is on us, the license holders to take the classes we need and record them in the four categories of requirements.

Today I have no idea where I stand in renewal but I have participated in many classes this summer. It takes a lot of time and diligence to document the classes by those who put them on and those who take them.

As I teach some of the classes, I get credit for the class as well as though who listen so I get wrapped up in the presentation versus the recording of them.

I think the program is worth it and I use my certification to keep myself upsated and share with others but I can see where it is a pain for all involved. Is it really worth it?

I see another poster found that GMO corn did not pay over his non GMO corn on his farm. I never found GMO corn to be advantageous to me. The LL trait has helped my soybean production though.

Ed

2 comments:

  1. I need classes...A lot of classes...
    Round-up Ready corn got us though a serious weed problem with a place we used to farm. It is kind of a toss up now. However, there are virtually no small seed corn producers left and so there is no longer the variety of non GMO corn there used to be. We had to use non-GMO corn this year because of the requirements of the company buying the neighbor's sweet corn. I suppose it was not really our problem but we try to be good neighbors.

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  2. You guys in Oregon are in a unique situation. I am afraid we will be soon also in Ohio.

    What do you want to learn and I could teach a series here on HyMark High Spots that could be beneficial to all?

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