Delaware Ag Week set to begin on Jan. 16

By SEAN CLOUGHERTY
Managing Editor

HARRINGTON, Del. — Heading into its seventh year, Delaware Agricultural Week kicks off next week with dozens of presentations and meetings covering nearly every segment of agriculture.
Cory Whaley, Sussex County Extension ag agent and Ag Week planning committee chairman, said it’s difficult to highlight any one session over the others since farmers have varied and specific interests.
“We try to treat all sessions equally,” he said. “Ag Week is just a lot of very different topics. We hit a lot of major areas of agriculture.”
Two events grouped in with the Ag Week schedule — the University of Delaware’s Friends of Agriculture Breakfast on Friday, Jan. 20 and the Delaware Ag Industry Dinner on Thursday, Jan. 26 — will be of interest to all types of farmers, regardless of what they grow.
At the UD breakfast, Gov. Jack Markell and Sen. Tom Carper are scheduled to speak and at the ag industry dinner, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack is scheduled to address the crowd at Dover Downs.
Tickets for the dinner are still available and can be reserved by calling Lisa Falconetti at 302-698-4554.
Four days of meetings scheduled at the Delaware State Fairgrounds from Jan. 16 to 19 cover fruit and vegetables, grain marketing, hay and pasture, equine, pasture, forestry, beef cattle, small ruminants, poultry, direct marketing and aquaculture.
For the second year, the First State Antique Tractor Club will bring antique equipment for display on Jan. 17 and 18.
“That’s kind of an extra thing. It gives people a chance to check out the old tractors,” Whaley said.
A young farmer loan program is new this year and is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 18 from 10:30 to noon and repeats on Thursday evening, Jan. 19 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
With new programs from the Delaware Department of Agriculture, MidAtlantic Farm Credit and the USDA, Whaley said it was an easy decision to put the workshop on the schedule.
“We’re trying to tie that all together and really promote the young farmer programs and give them the resources as far as who to go to for help,” he said.
Other events promoted with Ag Week but not at the fairgrounds include a Market Garden seminar at the Paradee Center in Dover on Jan. 21 from 9 a.m. to noon with a potluck lunch to follow, the Delaware Horticulture Industry Exposition and annual Pesticide Conference on Jan. 25-26 at the Modern Maturity Center  in Dover and the Regional Women in Agriculture Conference at Dover Downs on Feb. 9 and 10.
A complete schedule of the Ag Week sessions is available by visiting http://sites.udel.edu/delawareagweek.