The Iowa State University Extension, with the support of the Iowa Soybean Association and the North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research Education Program, presents the 2017 Crop Advantage Series.

The Crop Advantage Series is an opportunity for farmers and crop advisors to be updated about the latest research and crop production information, particularly the management options and recommendations on current and future crop production issues.

"There is no other program in our crop production education year that we are able to bring this many Extension specialists together to individual sites across the state like we are able to do for these crop advantage meetings," said Joel DeJong, field agronomist in northwest Iowa with Iowa State University Extension.

He also said that the goal of the program is share the most up-to-date scientific knowledge from the Iowa State University in order to prepare the producers to manage potential issues that may arise.

The meetings will also provide continuing educations credits for Certified Crop Advisers and pesticide safety recertification.

Among the topics included in next year's agenda are managing economic challenges, nitrogen dynamics with a rye cover crop, new and emerging corn disease to look for in 2017, pest resistance management plan for soybean aphids, and drainage design for profits and water quality. They will also discuss crop market outlook and the prevention of Palmer amaranth from moving onto the farms.

"Palmer amaranth will be a large discussion topic since it's now been identified in the majority of Iowa counties, along with the risk and return of specific management factors in all inputs of crop production," said DeJong.

"Almost all topics will relate back to the narrow or negative margins many have been seeing in production agriculture," he added.

Specialists from the university will travel to eight locations around the Farm News coverage area from January 4 to January 26. Early registration for each location is $50, while registrations made less than seven days prior to the meeting is $60.