The Western Pennsylvania vegetable and berry grower's seminar is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Nov. 18 at the Days Inn in Butler Township.

As always, the meeting features excellent local and regional experts speaking about vegetable and berry growing and marketing. It also includes a good trade show consisting of major regional suppliers, seed companies and others.

There will be morning and afternoon sessions on vegetable production, along with a concurrent morning session on berry production and a concurrent marketing session in the afternoon. Two pesticide license category credits are available in both of the morning sessions and two core credits in the afternoon vegetable production session.

The focus of this year's production session will be on vegetable disease control and food safety for vegetable and berry growers.

Dr. Wesley Kline, county Agricultural Agent from Cumberland County, New Jersey, will outline basic steps growers should take to minimize any risk of food borne pathogen contamination on produce. Kline has extensive experience working with New Jersey wholesale growers who have to go through third-party audits for their buyers.

Dr. Andy Wyenandt, Extension pathologist for vegetable crops at Rutgers University, will discuss bacterial diseases of tomatoes, phytophthora wilt of peppers and vine crops in his first talk; then powdery and downy mildew management on vine crops in the second talk.

In the morning berry growing session, Kathy Demchak, Penn State Extension associate for small fruit, will talk about day neutral strawberry production in Pennsylvania. Kathy also will discuss new research on black root rot of strawberries.

Low spray and organic pest management options for berry crops will be the topic for Dr. Elsa Sanchez, professor of horticulture at Penn State.

Dr. Tim Elkner, regional Penn State Extension horticulture educator from Lancaster County, will follow. Tim will tell us what varieties looked the best in his blackberry trials in Lancaster County.

Steve Bogash, Penn State regional horticulture educator for the Capitol region, will lead the afternoon marketing session. Steve will talk about how growers can build on the public's desire for local produce and also explain the basics of "Marketing to Today's Consumer."

Registration fee is $30 if received by Nov. 12. Walk-in registration will be $35. That includes a hearty lunch, breaks and all handout materials.

Contact the Butler County Extension office at 724-287-4761 for more information and a brochure with the program and registration form. Also, you can find the brochure on the Web sites of Westmoreland http://westmoreland.extension.psu.edu/ and Washington http://washington.extension.psu.edu/ county offices of Penn State Cooperative Extension. If you are involved in, or even just considering commercial production of vegetable or berry crops, you won't want to miss the Western Pennsylvania vegetable and berry growers seminar.

Managing crop input costs and cash/credit needs

Is the high price of fertilizer and other crop inputs impacting your profitability? Are you wondering what impact the current worldwide financial crisis will have on your credit needs for feed, spring planting, or other expenses?

Plan now to attend "Managing Crop Input Costs and Cash/Credit Needs" sponsored by Penn State Cooperative Extension from 10 a.m. to noon Nov. 6 at the Mike and Annette Schiever dairy farm in Harmony.

Kevin Fry, Armstrong County Cooperative Extension agronomy educator, will discuss ways to reduce fertilizer costs, including monitoring soil fertility needs and benefits of cover crops.

Kathy Hartzell, AgChoice Farm Credit, will discuss credit availability for producers in the coming months and how to plan accordingly.

Bill Chess, Lawrence County Cooperative Extension farm management educator, will discuss some tax management and cash management considerations and how they may differ this year from years past.

To register, please call the Butler County Cooperative Extension office at 724-287-4761 by Nov. 4.

Livestock, lamb protection programs

Black vultures, European starlings, Canada geese, and eastern coyotes can cause significant loss and hardship to ag producers whose livestock and premise they threaten.

Wildlife Services, a program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, provides federal leadership and expertise to resolve wildlife conflicts that threaten livestock.

The Cooperative Livestock Protection Program, which is funded by federal, state, and local partners, provides producer-members in Butler and 15 additional counties in southwestern Pennsylvania with technical and operational assistance concerning black vultures, European starlings, Canada geese and eastern coyotes.

Wildlife Services technicians are available to provide direct control services to producer-members.

The Livestock Risk Protection Lamb Program is designed to insure against unexpected declines in market prices. Sheep producers may select from a variety of coverage levels and periods of insurance to correspond with general feeding, production and marketing practices.

LRP-Lamb may be purchased weekly throughout the year from approved livestock insurance agents. Premium rates, coverage prices and actual ending values are posted online weekly.

To learn more about these two programs, an informational meeting will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Butler County Cooperative Extension office. To register, please call the Butler County Cooperative Extension office at 724-287-4761.

This material is submitted by Donna Zang, Extension director, and the staff of the Penn State Extension office at the Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center complex.