By MELISSA HART

Michigan Correspondent

COLDWATER, Mich. — The 51st annual Farmers Day is slated for Feb. 19 at the Branch Area Career Center in Coldwater, with a full slate of educational seminars, entertaining speakers, a trade show and an opportunity for Restricted Use Pesticide (RUP) exams.

Farmers across the state of Michigan are being propositioned by solar power companies wanting long-term land leases for solar farms. Michigan State University extension educator M. Charles Gould will provide guidelines for farmers when looking over leases and determining if a proposal is a wise financial investment.

In the same financial vein, MSU educator Roger Betz will hold a seminar on farm succession and the challenges families face in complex legal and financial matters with estate planning issues.

Betz will team up with fellow educator Suzanne Pish to tackle stress management. Farmers know how to take care of their animals and crops, but they don’t take the same care with their own mental and physical health. Betz and Pish will share proven tips on stress management and how to keep physical and mental fatigue at bay.

Local foods are all the rage, with more people wanting to raise as much of their own as possible. MSU educator Mariel Borgman will cover growing vegetables in raised beds and containers, and share tips for gardening with young people and encouraging healthy eating.

On a bigger scale, successful crop production means keeping weeds under control, and MSU educators Bruce MacKellar and Eric Anderson, along with corn weed control specialist Dr. Erin Burns, will present herbicide options and scouting for weeds specifically for southwestern Michigan. This seminar provides two RUP credits and 1.5 CCA credits.

MacKellar and Anderson will also provide insight on pest management, focusing on the interaction among herbicide-resistant weeds, new weed species and the spread of white grub, western bean cutworms, armyworm and black cutworm damage in corn. This seminar also provides 2 RUP and 1.5 CCA credits.

There will be a session on animal welfare reviewing recent trending topics as well as new research for the swine and dairy industries. And livestock show people from ages 9-19 are invited to participate in a program that will stress sound animal husbandry practices and key factors to consider before, during and after exhibiting livestock at the local county fair.

Canning is covered with MSU extension educators Jeanie Nichols and Leatta Bird, as they explain how the steam canner works, what foods can be steam-canned, the advantages and disadvantages and how to steam can safely and end up with an award-winning product.

In addition to the seminars, a full trade show featuring local agribusinesses will be included, as well as luncheon with speakers Bruce and Jennifer Lewis of Pleasant View Dairy of Jonesville – presenting their excursion to New Zealand where they learned about the dairy industry near Down Under.

Registration is at the door with a cost of $3, which includes lunch and MSU Dairy ice cream. RUP exams will be given from 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; bring a money order or a check made payable to MDARD.

The 51st Farmers Day is sponsored by the Branch County Agri-Business Council, MSU and the Branch Area Careers Center. For more information, call the Branch County extension office at 517-279-4311.