BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Approximately 200 agriculture and crop protection industry guests gathered at a June 12 open house for the new Asmark-AGCO Open Training Center for Beginning Applicators, a 10-acre facility featuring a one-mile training course and 6,000 square-foot classroom and offices.

 

Guests learned about the Asmark Institute’s Applicator Training Course, which will instruct up to 400 crop protection “students” on stewardship and the proper use of application equipment and plant nutrition technologies during four-day sessions taking place every year.

They also had a chance to tour the Applicator Training Course, a meandering and challenging hands-on layout that serves to educate students on how to reduce or eliminate off-target applications due to spray drift, the relationship among nozzle, droplet size and speed to reduce the potential for drift and other essential applicator skills.

Courses offered by the Owensboro, Ky.- based Asmark Institute at the new Illinois training center are designed for both commercial and private crop nutrient applicators, said Allen Summers, president of the Asmark Institute.

“This week, the first 20 students will graduate from our Applicator Training Course having gained the knowledge andcomprehensive thought processes needed to diligently perform the job of a professional applicator,” according to Summers.

“They will have the ability to evaluate the situation for each load and field and be prepared to optimize the application or make the decision to delay or not spray, if that is the right thing do.”

Others attending included Dr. Fred Whitford, clinical engagement professor and director of Purdue University’s pesticide programs, Warren Goetsch, deputy director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, Tom Warner, Crop Protection Services’ president of North American retail operations, Bob Crain, senior vice president and general manager for AGCO, and Jean Payne, president of the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Assoc. (IFCA).

“Today, the agricultural industry must maximize food production while carefully stewarding complex technologies and our natural resources,” said Crain. “The Applicator Training Center and this extensive educational program will help support the entire industry in this effort – retailers, farmers, their rural neighbors, and down the line to consumers.”

During a catered meet-and-greet, Goetsch said the Illinois Department of Agriculture “is certainly excited” about the opening of the Asmark-AGCO training center, which he called a state-of-the-art facility.

“In my 28 years with the department, I’ve seen a lot of changes in the agricultural industry, many in technological advances. We must remember that appropriate training in these new technologies is of the utmost importance,” he said, while praising the IFCA and Asmark for advancing new programs and environmental stewardship practices.

“This facility has great potential for helping to meet the industry need for a welltrained pesticide applicator workforce. The Department of Agriculture is proud to support the ag-chem industry, the IFCA, Asmark and other leaders in their future endeavors.”

AGCO and Asmark have long histories of supporting the needs of agricultural retailers.

Asmark, established in 1990, provides risk management services and products for the agricultural industry. The company founded the Asmark Institute in 2005 as a private, nonprofit educational organization to deliver its unique collection of educational training materials to the retail agricultural sector.

AGCO has designed, developed and provided the latest in application equipment and technology since its purchase of the Ag-Chem Equipment Co. in 2001. The company supports and recognizes the industry’s top professionals through its AGCO Operator of the Year Award.

This year’s winner, Tony Kornder of Genesis Growing Solutions in Le Sueur, Minn., who provides crop protection services on 35,000 acres of his customers’ cropland was recognized and introduced to guests

of the open house.

Customer service, provided by Kornder and other professional applicators, is a cornerstone of what the new training center will instill in its applicators, according to Warner of Crop Production Services. “Safe, accurate application of fertilizers and crop protection products has never been as important as it is today,” said Warner, who began his career as an applicator and is a featured speaker for the course. 

 

“Students will leave well prepared to deliver quality application services and manage risk using today’s products and application 

equipment. They’ll also gain an appreciation for providing exceptional customer service and understand how heavily farmers rely on an applicator’s expertiseand attention to detail.”

Classes will begin at 8 a.m. Mondays and conclude at 2:30 p.m. Fridays. The course fee is $575 per participant. The Asmark-AGCO Applicator Training Center is located at 10226 North Road in Bloomington.

A calendar of availability and online  registration for the Applicator TrainingCourse is available at www.Asmark.org/TrainingCourses