Coordinator's Comments

Are Your Certified?

Are you one of the 700 people that had their commercial certification expire on April 1, 1997? CHECK YOUR CARD NOW! If the number in the box for the categories that you are certified in is 97, your certification expired April 1, 1997. Contact our office immediately at (701) 231-7180!

If you have not returned your recertification exam DO SO NOW! You are no longer certified and any restricted use purchases, sales, or applications you make after April 1, 1997 are illegal.

Thanks For Your Time

I would like to thank you for the time you took this winter to prepare yourself for the 1997 season. If you were one of those who attended a training program and/or took an examination, thank you for your time. Your time is valuable. The responsibilities who are asked to bear are also important. I am proud to report that nearly all applicators who had to retake a monitored examination because of the nine year testing requirement have passed those exams.

The 1997 Season

The 1997 season is beginning much like 1996. It looks like it may another intense season. The pest pressure will be high and the time to act will be short. The orange wheat blossom midge will be less of a problem than in 1996, but the need to monitor crops will still be there. The new strain of late blight could destroy our potato crop. Resistant cercospora threatens the sugarbeet crop. Grasshoppers could be the outbreak pest of 1997. Weeds will once again try their best to out compete our crops. The benefits of pesticides will be clearly demonstrated in 1997.

The intensity of the season will require you to be at your very best. Spray drift must be avoided, so must accidents and incidents. The risks of pesticide use will be with us and our neighbors will be watching with concern. Are you ready for this season? You need to be.

Container Collection

Ostlund Chemical Company and West Chem Agricultural Chemicals Inc. and Cenex/Land O' Lakes will be conducting collection and recycling programs for properly rinsed plastic pesticide containers at many sites in North Dakota in 1997. The collection locations and times will be announced soon. It is illegal for commercial applicators to burn plastic pesticide containers. Please plan to participate in this year's recycling program. If you would like to conduct a collection please call Ostlund, West Chem, or Cenex/Land O' Lakes.

Project Safe Send

Project Safe Send will be conducted at 19 sites in June. It is important that as much banned, waste, or unusable pesticide is collected in the 1997 program as possible, because the funding that is presently available is sufficient to pay for the hazardous waste disposal costs of all pesticides brought into the 1997 program, and there is a possibility that the program may be significantly reduced.

The deadline for preregistration for Project Safe Send is May 1, 1997. The deadline was extended because of the recent severe weather and flood conditions. Anyone who has flood damaged pesticides should signup with Project Safe Send.

If you have or know of someone who has banned, waste, or unusable pesticides, please get them preregistered. Forms are available from NDSU Extension Service County offices or from the North Dakota Department of Agriculture. If you have any questions please contact Judy Carlson at the North Dakota Dept. of Agriculture at (800) 242-7535.

North Dakota Crop and Pest Report

The North Dakota Crop and Pest Report is a timely source of information on pest situations, product registrations, etc. I highly recommend it to you.

Worker Protection Standard

The NDSU Extension Service, the North Dakota Agricultural Association, and various agricultural chemical distributor representatives cooperated to produce a listing of the information that commercial applicators are supposed to provide to agricultural producers with farm workers. The information can be found in the 1997 Crop Production Guide. The guide is available from the NDSU Extension Service at each county office or from the Distribution Center at 701-231-7882. The cost of the production guide is $10 plus shipping.

A photocopy of the WAS listing can be obtained from the NDSU Pesticide Programs office or from some of the various distributor representatives. The NDSU Pesticide Programs office is charging $5 per copy to cover the expenses for photocopying, shipping and handling.

Forms Available

A good way to stay current on the latest crop varieties, production practices, and weed, insect, and disease problems and management strategies is to attend the NDSU Research Extension Centers field days. The NDSU Research Extension Centers scheduled field days are listed below.

The following schedule has been set for the 1997 Field Days:

June 18 - Streeter
July 2 - Casselton (will be moved to the week of July 21-25 if seeding is significantly delayed)
July 8 - Hettinger (evening)
July 9 - Dickinson
July 10 - Williston
July 15 - Carrington
July 16 - Minot
July 17 - Langdon

Greg Dahl, Pesticide Programs Specialist