Continued Education

Yesterday I was off-campus trying to get in to see Trump at the St Charles convention center.  Well, not entirely. Although I was in the same building as Trump, I was on the lower floor, attending the Missouri green industry conference which is an annual educational and trade show event.  This event is great for networking with others in the industry, catching up on the latest trials going on at turf research facilities and checking out new equipment. 

It is also provides a program for recertification of my Missouri pesticide applicator license.  This has to be done every three years and this was my time to recert.  This program covers a wide range of topics from new product, to safety, new pests and of course new laws and regulations.  It is important to me and everyone else in our industry to serve as positive stewards of the environment.  Products used these days are far safer than 10 or 20 years ago.  We apply products that are safe for human re-entry, and carefully apply according to all rules, regulations and product labels. 

We do our best in other areas of our department too.  For example, we collect our waste oil from the golf course equipment and give away to other facilities that use the oil as a heating source.  We also have started a compost pile where we have combined broken, unusable bags of fertilizer with grass clippings, leafs, and left-over unusable sod.  The fertilizer feeds microbes which break down all the organic matter and will eventually leave us with nutrient rich top soil we can use on the golf course!