Nueces Agriculture IMPROVING FOOD & FIBER PRODUCTION

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Nueces Agriculture IMPROVING FOOD & FIBER PRODUCTION Inside this issue: TX Corn Producers 2 Commercial, NonCommercial Pesticide 2 Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System 2 TDA Fee Increases 3

. 1st Tuesday of even months Time.. 8:00 am 11:30 am Fee: $50.00 (Includes study manuals) Remember you can find us on Facebook as Nueces County Agriculture.

Special points of Interest: January, 2016 Private Applicator Training Farm Worker Protection Lunch and Learn Program Field Crop Symposium The Value of Land Natural Resource Mgmt Pre-Registration

1 Nueces Agriculture IMPROVING FOOD & FIBER PRODUCTION Inside this issue: TX Corn Producers 2 Commercial, NonCommercial Pesticide 2 Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System 2 TDA Fee Increases 3 Lunch & Learn 3 Worker Protection Updates 3 Field Crop Symposium 4 Value of Land 5 Natural Resource Mgmt 6 Evaluation Cow Body Conditions 7 Volume 9, Issue 1 PRIVATE APPLICATOR TRAINING When.. 1st Tuesday of even months Time.. 8:00 am 11:30 am Fee: $50.00 (Includes study manuals) Remember you can find us on Facebook as Nueces County Agriculture. Don t forget to Like us and you can follow the goings on of AgriLife Extension in Nueces County. Special points of Interest: January, 2016 Private Applicator Training Farm Worker Protection Lunch and Learn Program Field Crop Symposium The Value of Land Natural Resource Mgmt Pre-Registration Required...(361) Where..TX A&M AgriLife Ext. Office 710 E. Main, Robstown, TX A Private Applicator is defined by law as a person who uses or supervises the use of a restricteduse or state-limited use pesticide for the purpose of producing an agricultural commodity. Have you looked at the Farm Bill Decision Aid lately? Many of you likely used the 2014 Farm Bill Decision Aid developed by the Agricultural & Food Policy Center at Texas A&M to guide you through the options in the 2014 Farm Bill. Did you know that you can use the same tool to assess your insurance coverage options as well? There are a multitude of crop insurance option available to you; and while our crop insurance agents do diligent work in an effort to provide you the best coverage, the best agents cannot look at every scenario for every producer. Growers who use the tool might glean additional coverage options worth discussing with your crop insurance professional. Together you may identity an option that saves your operation a few dollars. The decision aid can be found at and if you used it to analyze your farm bill options your information is already there! Monday, January 11, 2016 at 5:30 p.m. Solomon P. Ortiz Center 402 Harbor Dr, Corpus Christi, Texas State of the Port of Corpus Christi John P. LaRue, Executive Director, Port of Corpus Christi Authority Serving as Executive Director of the Port of Corpus Christi since April 1994, Mr. LaRue oversees the day to day operations of the Port Industries of Corpus Christi, a coalition of major port related entities in Corpus Christi concerned with advancing the quality of life. Mr. LaRue will speak on the state of the Port and its advance within the Coastal Bend. AGENDA 5:30 pm Refreshments and Social 6:00 pm Announcements, Introduction and Presentation, Followed by Q&A FARM WORKER PROTECTION SAFETY TRAINING Educational programs of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service are open to all people without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information or veteran status. The Texas A&M University System, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the County Commissioners Courts of Texas Cooperating When Feb. 5 Jun. 10, and Oct. 7, 2016 Time...9:00 11:00 am Where Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Office (Johnny Calderon Building) 710 E. Main, Robstown Pesticide handlers and workers must be trained every year unless they are certified applicators. All participants in this training will be issued cards verifying they have successfully completed the required training. The Texas A&M University System, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the County Commissioners Courts of Texas Cooperating Nueces Agriculture IMPROVING FOOD & FIBER PRODUCTION 1

2 TEXAS CORN PRODUCERS BOARD ELECTIONS The Texas Corn Producers Board will hold elections in three of its five voting regions to elect five board members where current members' seats are expiring. The TCPB election is conducted by voting regions and will be held from Jan. 9, 2016, until Jan. 23, There is one seat open for election in Voting Region Five, which consists of Atascosa, Bexar, Brooks, Cameron, Delta, Dimmit, Duval, Frio, Hardin, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kinney, Kleberg, La Salle, Live Oak, Maverick, McMullen, Medina, Nueces, Starr, Uvalde, Webb, Willacy, Zapata and Zavala counties. A person is eligible to vote in this board election if he or she is currently a producer of corn, or has been a producer of corn or has caused corn to be produced for commercial purposes for at least one production period during the three years preceding the date of this election (Jan. 23, 2016). This includes owners of farms and their tenants or sharecroppers that pay the corn assessment. Ballots will be available to area producers at the Nueces County Extension Office. Ballots are also publicly available from corn processing facilities or by mail from the TCPB office. For this ballot to be valid, producers residing in Region 5 simply need to mail completed ballots to TCPB, 4205 N. I-27, Lubbock, Texas, 79403, with a postmark date of no later than January 23, If anyone has questions regarding this election, please call TCPB at (806) or COMMERCIAL/NON-COMMERCIAL PESTICIDE APPLICATORS LICENSE TRAINING Unlike pesticide applicators seeking a Private Applicator License, those wishing to obtain a Commercial/Non-Commercial Pesticide Applicators License are not required to participate in a training session in order to take the licensing exam. However, many have found receiving training to be helpful to them in preparing for the licensing exam. On January 26 th from 8am Noon at the Johnny Calderon Building, we will be offering a training on General Pesticide Safety. The cost of the training will be $60 and include a copy of the training manuals and course materials. Participants will need to acquire a copy of training manual for the Pest Control Category they wish to certify in. The step by step procedure on obtaining a Commercial/Non-Commercial Pesticide Applicators License can be found at: TEXAS POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM PERMIT (TPDES) With the on going start and stop litigation about the implementation of the Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) regulation, many inquires from have been made about compliance information from concerned applicators. In Texas, pesticide applicators who continue to follow the stipulations and procedures detailed in the current TPDES will be in compliance with the state and federal regulations. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is in the process of promulgating new or revised regulations for submission to and approval by EPA. The current TPDES expires in November Complete instructions, forms and brochures for applicator compliance can be found at Agrilife.org/AES under the Miscellaneous Pesticide Safety Information tab. Applicators must have a copy of the TPDES permit in their possession to fulfill the compliance requirements. In addition, they should use the annual application threshold chart to determine which level of compliance they meet. Based on their threshold status, they must complete and submit or complete, file and maintain the self certification letter. Homeowners who do not use Restricted Use pesticides (Grazon P+D) or State-Limited-Use (SLU) pesticides (2,4-D) or exceed the annual application threshold limits do not have to do complete any forms, as they are currently covered under the auspices of the TPDES. We will keep you and the regulated community updated as these processes move forward. If you have any questions or need additional information on the TPDES, contact our office for assistance. Nueces Agriculture IMPROVING FOOD & FIBER PRODUCTION 2

The TDA announced increases in all license fees that will take effect in January 2016.

3 The TDA announced increases in all license fees that will take effect in January New license fees are as follows: Private - $100 Certified Private - $0 Commercial AG - $200 Non-Commercial Ag - $75 Structural Applicator (all) - $125 Structural Business License WORKER PROTECTION STANDARD November 2, 2015 EPA published the final regulations for the Worker Protection Standard. Originally passed in 1992, with revisions in 1996, the 2015 revisions change many requirements. Applicators nationwide will now have to comply with numerous new regulatory stipulations. Summarized below you will find specific changes, as well as timelines, that EPA has published covering the new regulations which entities must comply with. Revised rule Training must be done annually instead of every 5 years Eliminate training grace period Certified applicator can now train workers Minimum age increases to 18 Application Exclusion Zone Eyewash water for handlers at all mix/load sites Hazard communication: only application information and SDS Central location retained for hazard communication Immediate family: add in-laws, grandparents & grandchildren also add aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces & first cousins Designated representative identified in writing; other requirements Equivalency option for states and tribes Date January 2, 2016 January 2, 2017 January 2, 2018 WORKER PROTECTION STANDARD IMPLEMENTATION TIMELINE Compliance Revised WPS final rule is effective. Compliance of existing WPS rules is required (Subparts A, B and C of 40 CFR Part 170) Compliance is required with MOST of the revised WPS regulation (Subparts D, E, F and G of 40 CFR Part 170) Compliance is required with ALL of the revised WPS requirements (Subparts D, E, F and G of 40 CFR Part 170) Including new content on pesticide safety information display ( (a)(3)) Covering new content in worker and handler training ( (c)(3) and (c)(3)) Suspension of applications by handlers if anyone is in the application exclusion zone ( (c)(3)) Nueces Agriculture IMPROVING FOOD & FIBER PRODUCTION 3

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EVALUATING AND IMPROVING COW BODY CONDITION As winter has finally settled in, it might be a good time to take a minute and look at the body condition score of your cows.

7 EVALUATING AND IMPROVING COW BODY CONDITION As winter has finally settled in, it might be a good time to take a minute and look at the body condition score of your cows. Cow body condition score is a good indicator of the nutritional status of your cowherd. They range from one, very thin, to nine, obese, but the critical scores are four, five and six. A cow with a body condition score of four has the last few ribs (but not the backbone) showing while a cow with a condition score of five has no ribs showing and is usually considered ideal. A cow with a condition score of six has hooks and pins that are rounded in appearance due to fat cover. Good cow body condition is important to fertility, including rebreeding after calving, but also helps in providing energy for the stress of calving and in providing higher quality colostrum. Thin cows take longer to rebreed after calving, have more calving stress and lower quality colostrum. A cow usually looses a condition score at calving so cows that are in a body condition score four or lower will be more difficult to rebreed. The difference in body weight between each of these three scores is about eight percent or about one hundred pounds. Since cows are lucky to maintain their weight during winter, you should evaluate and supplement your cows, if necessary before calving. Cows on dry or frosted forage might need protein supplementation to meet protein needs and improve digestibility. Cows on very low quality forages or hay may need both energy and protein to regain the necessary body condition. Testing hay or forages will help you determine their nutritional needs. Contact Agriculture Extension Agent at , for assistance and advice. Nueces Agriculture IMPROVING FOOD & FIBER PRODUCTION 7

Jason P. Ott Nueces County Extension Agent Agriculture/Natural Resources 710 East Main Street, Suite 1 Robstown, TX 78380-3148 Visit us online! http://nueces.agrilife.

8 Jason P. Ott Nueces County Extension Agent Agriculture/Natural Resources 710 East Main Street, Suite 1 Robstown, TX Visit us online! Disclaimer - the information herein is for informational purposes only. Reference to commercial products or trade names is made with the understanding that no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service is implied. Educational programs of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service are open to all people without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information or veteran status. The Texas A&M University System, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the County Commissioners Courts of Texas Cooperating Individuals with disabilities who require an auxiliary aid, service, or accommodation in order to participate in any Extension event are encouraged to contact their County Extension Office at at least one week in advance of the program in order for proper arrangements to be made. In the event of a name, address or phone number change please contact the office at: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service 710 E. Main, Suite 1 Attn: Ag/NR Robstown, Texas (361) Jason P. Ott County Extension Agent Agriculture/Natural Resources Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Nueces County Nueces Agriculture IMPROVING FOOD & FIBER PRODUCTION 8

2017 CONTRACTOR AWARD INFORMATION PACKET AND APPLICATION

THE SOUTH TEXAS INDUSTRIAL INDUSTRY SAFETY EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2017 CONTRACTOR AWARD INFORMATION PACKET AND APPLICATION Sponsored by CONTRACTORS SAFETY COUNCIL OF THE COASTAL BEND And PORT INDUSTRIES OF