CERTIFIED CROP ADVISER
Performance Objectives
for
Prepared by the
revised, 09/2006
CONTENTS
Forward
i
Introduction
.ii
Nutrient
Management
1-4
Soil
& Water Management
....4-7
Management of
Weeds
7
Weed Biology
...7
Weed
Identification
.....7
Herbicide
Efficacy
7
Herbicide
Classification
..8
Integrated
Management of Insects
...8
Insect
Biology
...8
Insect
Management Strategies
...9
Management
of Diseases
10
Plant
Disease Development
10
Plant
Disease Management
....10
Plant
Disease Identification
...10
Crop Production
.11-12
Seeding
..11
Growth
and Development
...11
Harvest
and Storage
....12
Laws
and Regulations Affecting Pesticides, Fertilizers & Noxious Weeds
12-14
Label Knowledge and Comprehension
.13
North Dakota Seed Law and
Regulations
.14
Soil Fertility, Nutrient & Water
Management Resource List
15-16
Weed Management Resource List
.16
Insect Management Resource List
16-17
Plant Disease Resource List
...17-18
Crop Production Resource List
.19-21
Laws & Regulations Resource List
....21-23
*FORWARD
Throughout history, a
nations success has been directly related to the success of its
agriculture. Today, with approximately
two percent of this nations population engaged in production agriculture, the
margin for error is small, and the effects of mismanagement extend well beyond
the farm gate to all segments of society.
Producers rely heavily on the advice of others. The Certified Crop Advisers (CCA) Program
came into existence to ensure that growers receive sound advice and
recommendations.
The CCA Program is built on
the concept that there are certain things one must know in order to provide
sound advice to producers. The initial,
and most critical, state of the program consisted of asking a wide array of
agriculturists involved in all aspects of crop production to tell us what a
Certified Crop Adviser must know. We
used this information to create the Competency Areas and Performance Objectives
that follow. By mastering the
Performance Objectives, one will possess the knowledge that the agricultural
industry has deemed important for a Crop Adviser.
These Performance Objectives
are dynamic, and will be upgraded, changed and modified as the needs of the
crop production industry evolve. The CCA
Program will then remain a viable and useful tool that will recognize the high
level of competence displayed by those who choose to earn this designation.
Andrew Seibert
James Vorst
1993
*from National Certified Crop
Adviser
Performance Objectives
i
INTRODUCTION
As a Certified Crop Adviser
(CCA), you can demonstrate your valuable agronomic expertise to the farmers for
whom you provide crop production recommendations.
CCA is a voluntary
organization of professionals formed to establish a base standard of knowledge,
skills, and abilities for individuals who advise farmers on crop management and
production inputs. The goal of the CCA program is to demonstrate
professionalism in providing economically and environmentally sound production
advice to agronomic producers.
The CCA program is
coordinated Internationally (US and
In addition to passing both
an international and state test, the applicant must also demonstrate work
experience and/or education requirements.
Performance Objectives
CCA performance objectives
are available for both the International and
The North Dakota CCA
performance objectives cover the following areas: (1) Nutrient Management, (2)
Soil and Water Management, (3) Integrated
The International CCA
performance objectives can be obtained from either the ND State Board or the
American Society of Agronomy.
NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT
Nutrient Management Competency Areas:
1. Basic soil fertility
2. Nutrient movement in soil
and water
3. Soil pH
4. Soluble salts
5. N, P, K plant requirements
6. Secondary and
micronutrient plant requirements
7. Soil sampling,
interpreting soil test reports and making fertilizer recommendations
8. Forms of fertilizer and
application methods
Expertise Within
Each Competency Area:
Competency
Area 1. Basic Concepts of Soil Fertility
1. Understand the relative
frequence of deficiency of the 16 nutrients essential for plant growth
2. Recognize or describe
deficiency symptoms of the 13 mineral nutrients essential for plant growth (small grains, corn, soybean,
edible bean, sunflower, canola)
3. Recognize which compounds
or ionic states of the essential nutrients can satisfy plant nutrient
requirements
4. Understand the role of
cation exchange in retaining and releasing certain nutrients for plants
5. Understand the source of
cation exchange capacity (CEC)
6. Understand the process of
nutrient uptake and distribution in plants
7. Understand the role of
microorganisms in cycling certain nutrients needed for plants through organic matter and residue breakdown,
immobilization and release.
8. Define soil organic matter
9. Understand the affect of
agronomic practices on soil organic matter levels
1.
Competency Area 2. Nutrient movement in soil and water
1. Understand how soil,
climatic and nutrient properties affect movement and retention of nutrients in
soil and water, and nutrient availability and uptake by plants
2. Understand the importance
of landscape position in water movement and factors affecting nutrient availability
Competency
Area 3. Soil pH
1. Understand the difference
between active and reserve acidity
2. Understand how soil pH
influences nutrient availability
3. Understand the role of
bicarbonate in iron chlorosis
4. Understand the processes
which contribute to change in soil pH
Competency
Area 4. Soluble salts
1. Understand the source of
soluble salts
2. Understand the term
electrical conductivity as it relates to soil salts
3. Understand the principles
in managing soil salinity
4. Know the difference
between alkaline, saline, sodic and saline-sodic soils
Competency
Area 5. N, P, and K requirements
1. Understand how soil
properties and nutrient cycling processes affect P and K availability
2. Understand the N cycle in
soils and know the effect of the following processes:
a. ammonification
b. crop removal
c. denitrification
d. erosion
e. fallow
f. immobilization
g. leaching
h. mineralization
i. nitrification
j. volatilization
2.
3. Understand the process of
symbiotic N fixation
4. Understand the source of N
from previous crops
Competency
Area 6. Secondary and micronutrient plant requirements
1. Understand which crops
have special requirements for secondary and/or micronutrients and are especially susceptible to
deficiency in
2. Understand the
relationship between soil minerals/organic matter, and secondary and micronutrient availability
Competency
Area 7. Soil sampling,
plant sampling, interpreting soil test reports and making fertilizer
recommendations
1. Understand how to obtain a
composite field soil sample
2. Understand the difference
between grid and zone sampling and the strengths and weaknesses of each
approach
3. Understand the depth of
sample core required for analyzing each mineral nutrient
4. Understand what a previous
crop credit is
5. Interpret a soil test
report
6. Given a soil test report
and calibration information, make an economically and environmentally correct fertilizer
recommendation
7. Understand how the plant
part sampled and timing of sampling influences plant tissue analysis
8. Understand how to handle plant
samples once they are obtained
Competency
Area 8. Forms of fertilizer and application methods
1. Recognize the physical
form, analysis and describe the advantages and disadvantages of the following
most common fertilizers in
a. anhydrous ammonia
b. urea
c. ammonium nitrate
d. ammonium sulfate
e. monoammonium phosphate
f. diammonium phosphate
g. muriate of potash
h. elemental sulfur
3.
2. Define chelate and
understand how and why they are used
3. Describe the affects of
proper timing, placement method and rate of N, P and K for
4. Given the price per ton
and fertilizer analysis, calculate the price per pound of nutrient
5. Identify the advantages
and disadvantages of broadcast and banded fertilizer application
6. Define a variable-rate
fertilizer application
7. Understand the differences
in quality between forms of elemental sulfur and the differences in
availability between elemental sulfur and available sulfate fertilizers for
sensitive crops such as canola
8. Understand the use and
value of the following nutrient sources:
a. fresh manure
b. sludges
c. legumes
d. broadleaf crops rich in N
e. soil organic matter
f. cover crops
g. composted manure
SOIL AND WATER MANAGEMENT
Competency Areas
Soil
Management
1. Basic Soil Properties
2. Soil Erosion
3. Residue Management
4. Soil Survey
Water
Management
5. Water and solute movement
6. Plant/water relationships
7. Irrigation and drainage
8. Water quality
4.
Expertise Within Each
Competency Area:
Competency
Area 1. Basic Soil Properties
1. Understand the meaning of
the following soil terms:
a. texture
b. bulk density
c. structure
d. soil health
e. available soil water
f. field capacity
g. wilting point
h. compaction
i. drainage
2. Understand how soil
texture affects field capacity, wilting point, and available water.
Competency
Area 2. Soil Erosion
1. Understand the forms of
water erosion
2. Understand the components
of the revised universal soil loss equation
3. Describe saltation
4. Understand the use of soil
conservation practices to reduce wind and water erosion
5. Understand that in
Competency
Area 3. Residue Management
1. Estimate percent residue
cover using the line transect method
2. Understand how the
following tillage practices affect percent residue cover and soil susceptibility to erosion
a. no-till, zero-till
b. plow
c. chisel-plow
d. field cultivator
e. disk
f. undercutter
g. rod-weeder
h. strip-till
5.
Competency Area 4. Soil Survey
1. Understand that soil
surveys provide a soil resource inventory for
a. natural drainage class
b. soil depth
c. soil slope
d. parent material
e. influence of natural vegetation
f. erosion susceptibility
g. best land uses
2. Understand the following
soil survey terms
a. soil series
b. soil type
c. soil map unit
d. land suitability
Competency Area 5. Water and Solute Movement
1. Understand the principles
of point and non-point source pollution and be prepared to recognize examples
of each
2. Understand the importance
of lateral flow in water movement within landscapes
3. Define preferential flow
4. Know the two most important
nutrients in terms of surface water pollution
Competency Area 7. Plant/Water Relationships
1. Understand the factors
influencing evapotranspiration
2. Understand the effects of
soil dryness and soil wetness on plant growth
Competency
Area 8. Irrigation and Drainage
1. Understand the components
needed to facilitate successful drainage
2. Understand the
relationship between irrigation and drainage
3. Understand the
consequences of over-watering/under-watering
4. Understand the importance
of compatible soils and irrigation water in sustaining successful irrigation
6.
5. Understand the benefits
and disadvantages of surface and tile drainage systems
Weed Management
Competency Areas
1. Weed Identification and
Biology
2. Herbicide Efficacy
3. Herbicide Classification
4. Integrated
5. The Role of Bioengineered
Crops in Weed Control
Expertise Within Each Competency Area
Competency
Area 1. Weed Identification and Biology
1. Identify characteristics
of the following annual and perennial weeds:
Absinth
wormwood Nightshade
species Quackgrass
Barnyardgrass Field bindweed Pigweed species
Biennial
wormwood Field sandbur Russian
thistle
Canada
thistle Green
foxtail Saltcedar
Common
cocklebur Kochia Knapweed
species
Common
lambsquarters Ladysthumb Wild
buckwheat
Common
mallow Lanceleaf sage Wild
mustard
Common
ragweed Leafy spurge Wild
oats
Dalmation
toadflax Musk thistle Wild
sunflower
Downy
brome Purple loosestrife Yellow foxtail
Yellow
starthistle
2. Describe the life cycle,
reproductive capacity, viability and dispersal of seed for the weeds
listed in 1.1.
Competency
Area 2. Herbicide Efficacy
1. Describe how the following
factors affect soil-applied herbicide efficacy and persistance.
2. Describe how the following
factors affect post-emergence herbicide efficacy, persistence and drift.
7.
a.
Rainfall and soil moisture
b. Soil characteristics (pH, organic matter, fertility,
clay content, and CEC)
c. Soil temperature, air temperature and humidity
d. Herbicide volatility
e. Rate and method of herbicide degradation
f. Herbicide uptake, translocation and fate in plants
g. Adjuvant function and specificity
h. Mechanisms of herbicide selectivity
i. Application technique and incorporation
j. Optimum crop and weed growth stage for herbicide
application
Competency
Area 3. Herbicide Classification
Know chemical family, mode of
action, symptomology and selectivity of herbicides used in
Competency
Area 4. Integrated
Know and understand cultural,
mechanical and biological methods of weed control and how they can influence
the use and effectiveness of chemical methods of control. Also, know herbicide-resistant management
strategies for weeds.
Competency
Area 5. The Role of Bioengineered Crops
1. Understand the meaning of
transgenic crops
2. Understand the advantages
and disadvantages of genetically altered herbicide resistant crops
Management of Insects
Insect Management Competency Areas
1. Insect Identification and
Biology
2. Insect Management
Strategies
3. The Role of Bioengineering
in Insect Management
Expertise Within
Insect Competency Areas
Competency
Area 1. Insect Identification and Biology
1. Identify the following
economically important insect pests in
8.
General insects: Corn
insects: Potato
insects:
grasshoppers European
corn borer leafhoppers
cutworms corn rootworms
wireworms white grubs green peach aphid
Small grain insects: Sunflower insects: Canola
insects:
armyworms sunflower
beetle flea beetles
cereal
aphids sunflower
midge diamond back
moth
barley
thrips spotted
stem weevil Bertha army
worm
Hessian
fly red
seed weevil
wheat
stem sawfly grey seed
weevil
wheat stem maggot banded
sunflower moth Beneficial insects:
orange
blossom thistle
caterpillar ladybird
beetles
wheat
midge green
lacewing
syrphid
fly
Forage insects: Sugarbeet insects:
Sweetclover
weevil sugarbeet root
maggot Soybean insects:
blister beetles lygus
bug aphid
2. Understand insect life
cycles; recognize gradual and complete metamorphosis, and be familiar with life
cycle events throughout the growing season
3. Understand insect
reproductive habits: egg-laying, live bearing insects, and the role of
pheromones and their use in monitoring population activity
4. Be familiar with insect
morphology and feeding injury; recognize the relationship between types of
insect mouthparts and the types of feeding injury that can be inflicted
Competency
Area 2. Insect Management Strategies
1. Understand types of
control and the advantages and disadvantages of cultural, natural, biological,
and chemical control
2. Understand the concept and
use of economic threshold
3. Understand insect scouting
procedures; random vs. sequential sampling, sample size, pheromone trap
monitoring
4. Describe factors that
influence performance of insecticides
5. Describe how insect
resistance develops
Competency
Area 3. The Role of Bioengineered
Crops in Insect Management
1. Understand the types of
genetically altered crops available and the types of insects they control
9.
2. Understand that components
of crops or the entire crop may contain genetically incorporated insecticidal
properties
Management of Diseases
Disease Management Competency Areas
1. Plant Disease Identification
2. Plant Disease Development
3. Plant Disease Management
Expertise in Disease Management
Competency Areas
Competency
Area 1. Plant Disease Identification
Recognize the signs and
symptoms of the following major crop diseases in
a. Wheat tan spot p. Soybean rust
b. Wheat Septoria leaf and glume blotch q. Canola blackleg
c. Fusarium head scab of small grains r. Flax pasmo
d. Common root rot of small grains s. Powdery mildew of field pea
e. Wheat streak mosaic virus t. Ascochyta of pulse crops
f. Leaf and stem rust of small grains
g. Sclerotinia (white mold) of broadleaf crops
h. Cercospora leafspot of sugarbeet
i. Early and late blight of potato
j. Common and halo blight of dry bean
k. Dry rot of potato
l. Sunflower and dry bean rust
m. Black leg and soft rot of potato
n. Downy mildew
o. Ergot of cereals
Competency
Area 2. Plant Disease Development
1. Differentiate infectious
and non-infectious diseases
2. Know the disease triangle,
and how pathogens infect, are disseminated and survive
Competency
Area 3. Plant Disease Management
1. Understand the principles
of Integrated Pest Management
10.
2. Know which seed treatments
and foliar fungicides are used in
3. Understand how to manage
fungicide resistance
4. Understand the importance of rotation to
break pest cycles.
CROP PRODUCTION
Crop Production Competency Areas
1. Seeding
2. Growth and Development
3. Harvest and Storage
Expertise in Crop Production Competency
Areas
Competency
in Area 1. Establishment
1. Know the factors that
influence the seeding practices of major crops (wheat, durum, barley, oats, corn, field pea, flax, alfalfa,
sunflower, dry edible bean, soybean, sugarbeet, canola and potato).
2. Be familiar with
recommended crop rotations.
3. List recommended planting
rates and the factors that influence plant populations of major crops including
date of planting, planting depth and row spacing.
4. Recognize how tillage
systems impact crop production and management
5. List the criteria for
selection of a hybrid or cultivar for all major crops
Competency
in Area 2. Growth and Development
1. Describe plant growth and
development stages of these major crops:
a.
small grains e. alfalfa
b.
corn f. dry edible
bean
c.
soybean g. canola
d.
sunflower h. field pea
11.
2. Define the term growing
degree day and describe how it is used in crop production. Know the base
temperatures for wheat, sunflower and corn. Calculate growing degree days for a
given period if given the necessary background temperature information
3. Describe how temperature
extremes affect the growth and development of the crops in 2.1
4. Identify damage to crops
from high temperatures, hail, frost, flooding, drought and wind
5. Know how to take a plant
population count in a field
6. Compare and contrast
monoculture crop systems and a crop rotation
7. Describe climatic and
plant factors which influence a plants ability to resume growth after being
injured
8. Describe how the water and
nutrient needs of major
Competency
Area 3. Harvest and Storage
1. Know when the crops in 2.1
are physiologically mature
2. Recognize how drying
temperature, handling, storage time and storage conditions affect seed quality
3. Know the best management
practices for residue management, pest control and soil water management
following harvest of the crops in 2.1
4. Physiologically, what is
the best timing for harvest of corn silage, forage crops, small grains, grain
corn, soybean, dry edible bean, sugarbeet and potato for best grain, forage,
storage characteristics and processing quality?
5. Define forage quality and
the management necessary to achieve top quality forages
LAWS AND REGULATIONS AFFECTING PESTICIDES,
FERTILIZERS, AND NOXIOUS WEEDS
Competency Areas in Laws and Regulations
1.
2. Label Knowledge and
Comprehension, EPA
3.
12.
4. North Dakota Seed Law and
Regulations (NDCC Chapters 4-09 and 4-25)
Expertise Within Each Law and Regulations
Competency Area
Competency
Area 1.
1. Understand the general
provisions of this law and regulations
2. Define the following terms
a.
pesticide e.
private applicator
b.
restricted use pesticide f.
pesticide label and labeling
c.
certified applicator g.
bulk pesticide
d. commercial applicator
3. Know the regulations
regarding pesticide application, posting, storage, transportation and disposal
4. Know the legal
requirements and consequences of the verified Report of Loss
5. Know the requirements for
chemigation
6. Know the penalties and
consequences of non-compliance with the North Dakota Pesticide Act and
regulations
Competency
Area 2. Label Knowledge and Comprehension
1. Know the format of a
pesticide label and comprehend the meaning of the warnings, precautions and
symbols used
2. Know how to identify a
Restricted Use Pesticide and know which herbicides used for the major crops
(wheat, barley, dry edible bean, soybean, corn, sugarbeet, potato, canola and
sunflower) are restricted
3. Define the following terms
a.
signal word d.
statement of practical treatment
b.
days to harvest interval e.
precautionary statements
c.
restricted entry interval f.
environmental hazards
4. Know the importance of
using a pesticide only in a manner consistent with its labeling
5. Understand when it is
legal for not using a pesticide according to label directions
Competency
Area 3. North Dakota Noxious Weed Law
1. Know the general
provisions and requirements of this law and regulations
13.
2. Know the common names of
the
Competency Area 4.
1. Know the general
provisions and requirements of this law and regulations
2. Know the requirements for
labeling agricultural seed
3. Know the prohibited
noxious weed seeds and restricted noxious weed seeds
4. Know about the seed
certification system, its responsibilities and the terms breeder, foundation,
registered, and certified seed
5. Know the requirement for
the sale of seeds covered by the Plant Variety Protection Act
WORKER PROTECTION STANDARDS,
1. Know the general
provisions of the Worker Protection Standards
2. Know where to find
pesticide label information about personal protective clothing or equipment,
and restricted entry intervals
3. Know what situations and
conditions crop advisers and persons working under the direct supervision of a
crop adviser are exempted from and what situations or conditions do not allow
them an exemption
4. Know what the certified
crop adviser worker protection standard responsibilities are to employees
5. Know the EPA meaning of
the phrase persons under the direct supervision of a crop adviser
14.