PRINCETON, Ky.— The Kentucky Agricultural Training School (KATS), a University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CAFE) program, is hosting a hands-on Pest Management Workshop Aug. 27 at the UK Research and Education Center at Princeton. 

Designed for grain producers, crop advisers and industry representatives, the interactive workshop will focus on sprayer calibration, herbicide mode of action identification, corn disease assessment and late-season insect scouting.

“This workshop will give participants a practical look at current pest management tools and decision-making strategies for Kentucky grain crops,” said Travis Legleiter, Ph.D., Extension weed science specialist in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. “The goal is to connect research-based recommendations with field situations that producers and advisers are managing now.”

Legleiter will be joined by Kiersten Wise, Ph.D., professor and Extension plant pathologist, and Felipe Colares Batista, Ph.D., a postdoctoral scholar in entomology at Martin-Gatton CAFE. 

“The workshop gives participants a chance to see pest management research in the field and talk directly with specialists about challenges they are seeing in their own crops,” Wise said. “That kind of interaction helps producers and advisers make informed decisions that protect yield and return on investment.”

The workshop will run from 8 a.m. to noon CDT at the newly renovated UK Research and Education Center, 300 Extension Farm Road in Princeton. Sign-in begins at 7:30 a.m., and lunch will follow. The cost to attend is $65 per person. 

Because most of the workshop will be held outdoors in research plots, participants should dress accordingly for various weather and field conditions.

Continuing education credits for Certified Crop Advisers and pesticide applicators have been applied for.

Interested participants may register at https://katspestmanagement2026.eventbrite.com.