The Midwest Women in Agriculture Conference, coordinated by Purdue University, is expanding to two locations this year, with sessions scheduled for March 14 and 15 in Middlebury, Indiana, and March 16 and 17 in Nashville, Indiana.

The event's keynote speakers will be Jolene Brown from West Branch, Iowa, and Bernie Erven, a professor of agriculture, environmental and development economics at Ohio State University. Brown will tackle topics such as gaining confidence, generational differences and changes in agriculture. Erven will talk about running an effective farm business meeting and mastering people skills.

Also, Fred Whitford, coordinator of Purdue Pesticide Programs, will explain how farm families can avoid pesticide exposure to help farmers lower the danger to their families.

Farm children often learn how to complete tasks by watching and working with their parents, but there may be a hidden danger in this age-old method of teaching that parents don't realize, Whitford says.

Whitford, who is in the process of compiling data from a University of Minnesota study on farm family exposure to pesticides, said, "For the most part, kids, wives and husbands had very little pesticide exposure, but the sloppier that the husband was handling the chemicals, you could see his exposures just zoom out. Then, kids who helped, if they worked with their dads who didn't treat these things with respect, their exposure shot up."

Whitford's presentations involve hands-on experiments and lively demonstrations, but they also cover serious topics.

"There are certain ages that our children shouldn't be around these chemicals, and there are certain ages that our kids have got to learn what it takes to farm with pesticides," he said. "If, or when, the parents decide to let these kids start using these chemicals, they've got to teach them to respect them because most young people don't worry too much about any risk."

Breakout session topics will include the commodity outlook, international agriculture, an update from the USDA, urban and rural conflict, health, estate planning and meth labs.

Registration for either of the full conferences is $75 before February 28, or $125 after that date, plus hotel. Single-day registration is $65 before February 28 or $100 afterward. Visit http://www.ces.purdue.edu/wia/ for more information or to register.

The Midwest Women in Agriculture Conference, coordinated by Purdue University, is expanding to two locations this year, with sessions scheduled for March 14 and 15 in Middlebury, Indiana, and March 16 and 17 in Nashville, Indiana.