The Resistance Fighter of the Year Leadership Program honors resistance management leaders and offers career enrichment opportunities to members.
By Chris Harrell
To Josh Bailey and Tim Hambrick, managing resistance is critical to the future of farming. Both have made it a key component of their daily work, which is why Syngenta has selected them as the 2014 inductees into the Resistance Fighter® of the Year Leadership Program.
Now in its sixth year, this program recognizes agronomic role models who assist growers with resistance management, whether it’s herbicide, fungicide, insecticide or nematicide resistance. Syngenta designed the program to honor leaders in this area and give them career-enrichment opportunities as well as assistance in spreading
Josh Bailey resistance management strategies to growers in their communities.
Bailey (right), operations manager for Security Seed & Chemical in Clarksville, Tennessee, develops such strategies for numerous weeds, including marestail, Palmer pigweed and Italian ryegrass across Kentucky and Tennessee. Through his blog, www.kentuckyagproduction.com, he gives updates and recommendations on how to prevent and manage difficult weeds in corn, wheat and soybeans. Bailey says he applied for the program because of "the people you meet, the places you go and the things you get to see."
Hambrick (below) is an agriculture extension agent for the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service in Forsyth, Stokes and Surry counties. He provides educational programming for tobacco, corn, soybean and wheat producers and participates in on-farm research with crop specialists at North Carolina State University.
Tim Hambrick
“The program will certainly benefit me professionally,” says Hambrick. “But it will also benefit the farmers of my three counties, which excites me more than what I’ll get out of it myself.”
David Laird, head of product biology at Syngenta, agrees that the program can have far-reaching benefits, with the right leaders on its roster. “We’re honored to partner with strong leaders, like Josh and Tim,” he says. “We appreciate their many efforts to help manage the critical challenge of resistance in agriculture.”
For more information about the Resistance Fighter of the Year Leadership Program and to learn more about past winners, visit www.resistancefighter.com. Agricultural advisers interested in applying to the program also can go to the site to sign up for a notification when the application window opens in 2015.
