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State will begin offering an ag marketing program in February, while the state ag department issues a reminder for producers raising soybeans.

January 24, 2020

2 Min Read
row of three steel grain bins
CROP MARKETING: Full bins are a good thing, provided you can get the most return from every bushel. A new webinar series aims to help Colorado producers.Leonid Eremeychuk/Getty Images

Raising crops and livestock can be challenging, but many farmers may see more problems when it comes time to sell. Many producers don’t feel confident in their abilities to market commodities they produce. The challenge of low commodity prices, rising input costs and tight to nonexistent margins makes having top marketing skills more important.

Colorado is stepping up for 2020 with a series of marketing webinars designed to provide a solid, basic knowledge of what it takes to move the crop from farm to market, and grab available profit along the way.

Brent Young, a Colorado State University Extension ag economist, is offering a series of ag marketing webinars in February. The Basic Ag Marketing Lunch and Learn webinar series is meant to be an introductory course covering the mechanics of cash, futures and options markets.

The webinar series is designed to meet the needs of ag producers who are new to commodity marketing and are looking for techniques to improve the prices received for crops and livestock. And it’s a solid refresher even for more-than-novice marketers.

The webinar format is interactive and allows for live questions. Each session will be recorded for review, so if you miss a session, or want to go back and listen again for review, you can. The webinars will be held from noon to 2 p.m. Thursdays in February: Feb. 6, 13, 20 and 27. A single $15 fee covers all four sessions.

You can register online at agmarketinglunchnlearn.eventbrite.com. For more information, contact Young at 970-522-7207, or at [email protected].

Colorado issues dicamba reminder

While the state isn’t known to be a big producer of soybeans, there are farmers raising the crop, and many may be considering use of dicamba-tolerant varieties to help keep tougher weeds at bay. Ron Meyer, area Extension agronomist, CSU, released a reminder about key issues regarding use of these crops and the crop protection tool.

Dicamba herbicides are restricted-use products when used with tolerant soybeans, and they require extra steps for producers to purchase and use the tool. Meyer points out that as with any restricted-use pesticide, an applicator license (private or commercial) is required to buy dicamba herbicides.

Second, extra training is required to apply specific dicamba products including Fexapan, Engenia, XtendiMax and Tavium herbicides. Training options are accomplished via online video classes, and they’re required training when applying dicamba herbicides to crops such as tolerant soybeans. Here’s a list of sites where training can be found:

• BASF Stewardship with Engenia, engeniastewardship.com/#
• DuPont Stewardship with Fexapan, bit.ly/fexapantraining
• Bayer stewardship with XtendiMax, bit.ly/xtendimaxtraining

 EPA also lists specific training requirements necessary for purchasing and using dicamba, which can be found at bit.ly/epadicambatraining.

Source: Colorado State University, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.

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