TAg Training Workshop

January 2008

NYS IPM announces the Northeast Tactical Agriculture (TAg) Train the Trainer Workshop

When: February 14 & 15 2008
Where: Albany, NY

Hello from the NYS Livestock and Field Crops IPM Program team. We received funding from NE SARE to offer workshops to share information on a successful educational model that has proven highly effective in delivering locally adapted IPM field programs to our clientele. The training is intended for educators in all agricultural commodities. We invite your assistance to identify individuals with agriculture and/or IPM programming responsibilities and an interest in innovative educational approaches.

The educational model, called Tactical Agriculture, or TAg, has been implemented in 30 counties in NY since 1990 with about 1000 farmer graduates. The training workshop will teach participants the philosophy, benefits, components, and ground level implementation activities of a TAg program. The 2 day training workshop will be held in Albany, NY on Thursday-Friday February 14-15, 2008. Reimbursement is available for travel and lodging expenses.

How will this TAg training workshop benefit you and your colleagues? This training will provide participants with the opportunity to interact with like-minded individuals and experts in implementing adult education for agricultural clientele. Participants will receive hands-on experience and guidance for designing their own unique season-long on-farm educational programs. Participants will:

• Explore how adults learn
• Work in interactive groups to practice small group teaching dynamics
• Design teaching modules and discover ways to make the most of in-field teaching aids
• Learn effective ways to translate teaching results into reportable impacts
• Return home with a rough draft plan for implementing a TAg program
• Build relationships with people who have been successfully using the TAg model for years.

The TAg program is an experiential, hands-on training program for small groups of farmers in local areas. Farmers are actively integrated into the growing-season-long educational program with timely meetings to discuss critical pest and crop management issues that arise during the growing season. Built into the program are straightforward ways to demonstrate impacts and potential behavior changes, which we all know is a key part of our extension programming these days! Because impacts are readily measurable, TAg is a very cost-effective extension education system. The program can be custom built for the specific cropping needs in local areas. Participants will learn from fellow extension personnel and be encouraged to explore and discuss how a TAg style program could be adapted to meet their local extension needs. More information on TAg can be found on the Tactical Agriculture page, and current TAg educational modules are available on-line at the Northeast Region's IPM/ICM teaching modules.

Please share this announcement with others who may be interested in this program. For more information contact Ken Wise (518-434-1690) or Julie Dennis (315-252-5440).We look forward to hearing from you very soon. Space is limited for this innovative training experience!