Online Event Is Free, Pesticide Recertification Points Available
MILAN, Tenn. – COVID-19 has changed how the world is doing business and presenting education, and the Milan No-Till Crop Production Field Day is no exception. The 2020 event will be hosted entirely online beginning July 23, and registration is now open.
Presented by the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, the now biennial field day has been the event to attend to learn the most cutting-edge research and technology available to row crop farmers interested in practicing no-till or minimum-till agriculture. Over the 40 years of the event, thousands of producers and agribusiness representatives from all across the Mid South and neighboring regions, as well as internationally, have flocked to West Tennessee to learn first-hand how to improve their profitability while maintaining the quality of their soil and the environment.
For this year’s event—in an effort to preserve the health and safety of visitors and presenters while slowing the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19—organizers decided to move all educational presentations, tours and the trade show to an online format. All content normally available to attendees will be online at the website for the UT AgResearch and Education Center at Milan starting July 23. The popular educational tours will be presented in video format.
Blake Brown, director of the Milan Center, thinks the new format will be beneficial to producers. “By going virtual we can reach people that we would not otherwise reach, while offering our participants much greater flexibility in how and when they access our information.” Participants will not have to brave the hot, humid climate of West Tennessee in July and will instead access the content online from the comfort of their home, office, tractor cab or truck.
The complete program will be posted at the website, and includes 57 presentations across 15 tours that feature no-till production basics and advanced discussions by commodity; discussions of maintaining soil health; water management; precision agriculture; and pollinators. Also on the program are beef cattle management; trade, farm policy and production economics; and discussions about natural resource management, including Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer, and forest and pond management. A tour that focuses on hemp production is also on the agenda.
A Facebook Live event will also be available on July 23 featuring Brown and the research at the UT AgResearch and Education Center at Milan. Check in at milannotill.tennessee.edu or follow the Milan No-Till Field Day Facebook page for more updates.
A limited number of gifts will be mailed, while supplies last, to those who choose to pre-register. Registration is free. Visit the website for the Milan No-Till Field Day website to sign up.
Most content will remain accessible after July 23. As an added benefit, pesticide recertification points and Certified Crop Advisor continuing education units will remain available through December 31, 2020, to participants who view the online content.
The virtual field day is being sponsored in part by the Tennessee Farmers Co-op and Americot.
Through its land-grant mission of research, teaching and extension, the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. utia.tennessee.edu.