By KELLY L. HECKAMAN
Extension Educator, Purdue Extension Kosciusko County

Starting Wednesday, Feb. 11, Purdue Extension in Kosciusko County will offer a series of traditional winter farm meetings with a digital-age twist – participants and presenters from throughout the state will be linked via the Internet.

“Winter has traditionally been the time for farmers across the Hoosier state to get together over coffee and talk about the major issues in agriculture,” said Roy Ballard, a Purdue Extension educator and series coordinator. “Today we can still conduct these meetings, but we also have the capability of tapping experts from Purdue and around the globe and ‘bringing’ them here to our meeting place, your office computer or even your phone.”

What organizers are calling the “Doughnut Series” of farm meetings begins February 11 and runs from 7:30 a.m. until 9 a.m. every other Wednesday through March 25.

Ballard said the name was appropriate because “We’re getting together early in the morning and our goal is to keep Indiana farmers ‘in the dough’ and ‘out of the hole.’”

Each meeting in the series will focus on a different issue in agricultural production or agribusiness.

“These meetings will be offered as independent sessions on a broad array of topics from pest management, soil health and cover crops to farm equipment, weather forecasting, post-harvest management and marketing,” Ballard said.

Dates, topics and presenters are:

• Wedneday, Feb. 11, “Using Nitrogen Wisely for the 2015 Corn Crop”: James Camberato, associate professor of agronomy.
• Wednesday, Feb. 25, “U2U Decision Support Tools”: Melissa Widhalm, U2U project manager, and Hans Schmitz, Gibson County Extension educator.
• Wednesday, March 11, “Agronomic Checklist for a Successful Corn Crop”: Bob Nielsen, professor of agronomy and Extension corn specialist. Jeff Burbrink, Purdue Extension Educator from Elkhart County, will be on site to discuss Palmer Amaranth. This session will count as a credit for private pesticide applicators recertification program.
• Wednesday, March 25, “Maintaining Grain Quality in Storage”: Linda Mason, professor of food industry pest management and insect behavior.

Participation in the meetings is free, but RSVPs are requested two days prior to the meeting. For the March 11 PARP meeting, a pre-registration is required by Wednesday, March 4 and the $10 PARP fee may be paid at the door.

Register with the Purdue Extension – Kosciusko County office at (574) 372-2340 or email Kelly Heckaman at [email protected]