A26-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 20, 1998
Field Diagnostic Clinic To Address Variety Of Grower Concerns
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Fanning Staff
ROCKSPRING (Centre Co.)
This year’s series of one-day Penn
State Agronomic Field Diagnostic
Clinics is scheduled Wednesday,
July 22 and Thursday, July 23
from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. here at the Rus
sell E. Larson Agricultural
Research Center.
The clinics, sponsored by Penn
State, offer a variety of topics,
according to Dwight D. Lingenfel
ter, assistant extension agronom
ist. Participants can attend the full
program, offered either of the two
days.
The concerns and concepts to be
addressed at the clinics include
various aspects of agronomy. They
include finding out when a field of
alfalfa should be rotated to another
crop, how to evaluate com quality,
the use of Bt com in managing
European com borer, the use of
herbicide-resistant crops, using
sludge or waste materials on fields,
and precision agriculture in
Pennsylvania.
“These one-day field clinics are
designed to improve the agronom
ic management skills of industry
personnel,” said Lingenfelter,
program coordinator. “Specialists
from Penn State and the agricultur
1998 Penn State Agronomic
Field Diagnostic Clinic
Please return this registration form by July 10 to
Field Diagnostic Clinic
Attn.: Lisa Crytser
Dept, of Agronomy
The Pennsylvania State University
116 ASI Building
University Park, PA 16802
Please register me for the 1998 Field Diagnostic Clinic
You are invited to attend one of the following
programs:
Wednesday, July 22
OR
Thursday, July 23
Of the six events being offered, please choose the
five (5) events you would be most interested in
attending (if registering as a group indicate the
number attending each event).
Alfalfa Management
Corn Grain Quality
Weed Management
Responsible Use of Bt-corn Technology
Use of By-product Materials as Soil Amndmts
New Technologies for Precision Agriculture
Number attendin'
Amount enclosed ($40.00 per person)
(make check payable to The Pennsylvania State
University)
Name, company, address, and phone number of
primary registrant:
Name
Co
Address
Phone
(please clip and return this registration
form before July 10)
al community will provide hands
on diagnosis training in crop pro
duction, pest management, soil
fertility, and soil and water
conservation.”
Participants choose from a vari
ety of topics and have ample
opportunity to diagnose, solve, and
discuss crop management prob
lems and situations.
“We try to make it as hands-on
as possible,” said Lingenfelter of
the clinic program, in its 6th year.
“We try to generate different sce
narios and plots.”
Of the six events scheduled, par
ticipants can choose five. Each
event lasts about an hour. The
events are conducted concurrently,
according to Lingenfelter. Parti
cipants can attend whichever ses
sions they choose.
The sessions will be coordinated
by an extension professional.
Some may have industry
participation.
“We try to keep it as open and
flexible as possible,” said
Lingenfelter.
In addition to gaining practical
ag knowledge, certified crop
adviser (CCA) and pesticide appli
cator license credits can be
obtained.
Lingenfelter noted this year’s
clinic will be similar to past prog
rams. It will focus on various top
ics related to crop and soil manage
ment “As in the past” he said,
“there will be time for discussion
and hands-on participation.”
Last year, there were about 225
participants in the program, said
Lingenfelter. They included crop
management consultants, exten
sion agents, producers, marketing
professionals, and other agri
industry representatives.
The program includes:
• Alfalfa management, knowing
when and how to diagnose trouble.
Questions arise: what went wrong
with this alfalfa seeding? Is the
new seeding worth keeping? How
can a poor seeding be improved?
When is alfalfa ready to cut? Is a
3-year-old stand worth keeping?
Leant how to assess the situation
and provide answers to these com
monly asked questions. This field
session will expose participants to
problem situations that might arise
in a newly seeded alfalfa Held, an
established stand, and determining
when to give up on an older stand.
CCA continuing education units
(CEUs); 1.0 crop production (CP).
• Com grain quality. Com grain
quality is a key issue in Pennsylva
nia. TTiis session will provide par
ticipants with hands-on experience
at measuring the key factors that
are used to evaluate com grain
quality, such as moisture, test
weight, broken com, and foreign
material. Other physical and nutri
tional aspects of com that impact
com feed quality and price will
also be reviewed Basic manage
ment practices that impact grain
quality in the agronomic area as
well as in the grain drying, hand
ling, and marketing areas will be
covered. After completing this ses
sion, participants will have a basic
understanding of how to measure
com grain quality and how to man
age a com crop to produce quality
grain. CCA CEUs: 1.0 CP.
Hafer Declares TAP ‘Dividend’
HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.)
State Treasurer Barbara Hafer
recently announced that more than
17,000 families saving for college
through the Pennsylvania Tuition
Account Program will get an addi
tional $4.3 million in their ac
counts.
Hafer said the unprecedented
action was prompted by “the con
tinuing outstanding performance
of the TAP Fund” and will correct
for “excess conservatism” in the
early years of the fund, when par
ticipants were charged high fees.
Money that families had paid in
“premium” fees will now be cred
ited to their accounts as payments
toward future tuition, she said.
The fund was under no legal ob
ligation to make the adjustment,
but, Hafer said, “It’s the right
thing to do. We’re not here to see
how big a-surplus we can amass.
We’re here to help Pennsylvania
families send their kids to college.
Every additional dollar we credit
to an account will help a family
meet its college savings goals.”
When the program began in
1993, it charged premium fees that
often exceeded IS percent The
actuarially determined fees were
thought necessary to ensure the
solvency of the fund.
“In retrospect we can see that
the premiums were not needed,”
said Hafer. “Thanks to a strong
stock market and moderating tui
tion inflation, the TAP fund is
solidly in the black, even without
premium charges.
• Responsible use of Bt com
technology. Bt com use is on the
increase in Pennsylvania for con
trol of the European com borer. As
the percentage of acres planted to
Bt com increases, so does the risk
of the pest becoming resistant to
the Bt toxin. This station is
designed as a hands-on experience
to help identify which com fields
may benefit most from the technol
ogy and how to assess the potential
loss in yield caused by the pest
Identification of the pest and its
injury will be included. CCA
CEUs: 1.0 pest management (PM).
* Weed management. Total
postemcrgence weed control in
soybean and com. Several oppor
tunities exist for managing weeds
postemeigence in soybean and
com. How important is application
timing, row spacing, residual her
bicides, and weed species? This
demonstration will highlight man
agement considerations for effec
tively using total post strategies in
soybean and com. Another topic
will be herbicide injury symptoms
in com and soybean. With most
herbicide products, there is some
risk for injury. What are the injury
symptoms on com or soybeans?
This event will demonstrate injury
symptoms from several herbicide
classes, concentrating on some of
the newer products. CCA CEUs:
1.0 PM.
• Use of by-product materials as
soil amendments: benefits and
risks. There is a growing interest
among industries and municipali
ties to land-apply their residual or
waste materials because it is a
lower-cost alternative to landfill
disposal. These materials are being
promoted as beneficial soil amend
ments for ag soils. The residuals
may be provided at low- or no
cost, or the farmer may be paid to
accept the material. Arc these
materials a'boon or a bane to your
client? In this session. Penn State
“Converting the premium pay
ments to tuition credits also re
sponds to the valid complaints of
the many, many TAP participants
who have told us that when they
joined, they had no idea they were
being charged these high fees,”
Hafer added.
As auditor general, Hafer had
criticized the then-treasurer for
failing to disclose the premium
fees. Upon taking office as trea
surer, Hafer cut the premiums
sharply eliminating them in
some cases and rewrote TAP
literature to fully disclose the fees
where they still existed.
‘Today, we’re taking the final
step: retroactively abolishing all
premiums and crediting the
money to individual accounts,”
said Hafer.
Any premium amount ever paid
by the holder of an.active TAP ac
count automatically will be cred
ited to the account as a tuition pay
ment, Hafer said. “Some accounts
will grow by as much as $7,500.
More than 7,000 accounts will get
at least a $lOO boost And a thou
sand families will get $l,OOO or
more.”
TAP is a state-sponsored tuition
pre-purchase plan. If, for instance,
a participant buys from TAP a se
mester of Penn State tuition at the
current price. TAP guarantees that
it will pay for a semester’s tuition
at Penn State in the future no
matter when, and no matater how
much tuition goes up by then.
experts will look at several residu
als (see, touch, and smell), and dis
cuss their possible benefits (lim
ing, organic matter, nutrients, and
cash flow), management problems
(consistency, supply, handling,
and odor), and health and environ
mental risks (salts, pathogens,
trace elements, and pollutants).
The session will also review die
regulatory requirements for using
these materials. Materials to be
considered will include food pro
cessing residuals, construction,
and demolition wastes (wall
board), coal combustion by
products, spent lime residuals,
spent mushroom compost, other
composts, and sewage sludge.
CCA CEUs: 1.0 soil and water
(SW).
• New technologies for preci
sion agriculture. The training will
present the use of aerial photogra
phy (near-infrared and black and
white) for crop assessment, weed
and pest scouting, and water stress.
Samples of film-based and
scanned digital photography for
use in computers will be discussed.
The use of global positioning sys
tem (GPS) technologies and geo
graphic information system (GIS)
technologies will be covered in the
training. Principles of building a
farm GIS using mapping princi
ples and incorporating various data
layers soil types, sampling,
field boundaries, and prescription
maps for precision application
will be covered. Precision applica
tion sprayer technology will also
be presented. CCA C r .' is: 1.0 CP.
Registration fee of $4O covers
lunch, refreshments, and support
materials. Additional program
details and registration inforrna
tion can be obtained from Lisa
Crytser, Penn State Department of
Agronomy, at (814) 865-2543.
Registration deadline is July 10.
For program information, contact
Dwight Lingenfelter at (814)
865-2242.
Premiums were a charge in ad
dition to the school’s actual price
at the time the purchase was made.
Premiums varied based on actura
ial assumptions.
Hafer said the program’s ac
tuary, Ernst & Young, has now de
termined that abolishing pre
miums will not affect the actuarial
soundness of the find.
While the biggest beneficiaries
of this change are the families who
will be getting $4.3 million in ad
ditional tuition credits, this also
means new participants will be
able to join TAP without ever pay
ing premiums,” Hafer said.
“That’s just one more reason
for Pennsylvanians to consider
joining TAP. No other program al
lows our families to buy guaran
teed future tuition at the actual
price schools charge today and
get important tax breaks, too.”
TAP account earnings are state
and local tax-free. Federal tax is
deferred until the account is used,
then charged at the student’s rate
even though the purchaser re
mains in full control of the ac
count
Anyone can open a TAP ac
count and TAP Credits can be
used to pay tuition at any accred
ited college, university, trade or
technical school, anywhere in the
country.
Additional information on
TAP is available by calling 1-
800-440-4000 or by visiting the
program’s web site, www.patap.
org.