Tri-County Ag Extension Group Educational Series

Tri-County Ag Extension Group consists of Agriculture and Natural Resources Agents in Webster, McLean and Hopkins Counties.  The counties are not only alike geographically, but also agriculturally.  Many producers in the tri-county area farm in all three counties.  With specialist demand during the “winter meeting season” coupled with travel constraints, moving toward multi-county educational opportunities just makes sense.  The Tri-County Ag Extension Group offered an "Area Educational Series” during the 2023-24 Programming year.

The purpose of this educational series was to pool the collective resources that the Tri-County Ag Extension Group had at their disposal, to provide educational opportunities to producers in the area. Vicki Shadrick, Jay Stone and David Fourqurean worked to identify issues that needed addressed from an educational standpoint. Three area's that were identified were Grain Production, Forage production and Tobacco production. The specific issues within these areas were Dicamba Certification: With the increase in Dicamba complaints, producers needed training to apply Dicamba products correctly and in the correct conditions. The grain meeting gave the team members an opportunity to discuss real world situations from 2021 and how to prevent those problems from arising again. Forage Sampling: As fertilizer, feed and other inputs hit beef producers financially, forage analysis becomes a key input, the Tri-County Beef Field Conference gave producers a chance to learn valuable information regarding current beef trends. Presentations were made regarding the economic outlook for Beef production as well as LRP insurance for price protection. Nutritional information provided gave producers the necessary information for overall animal health. GAP Training: As producers learned about Good Agriculture Practices related to Tobacco production, team members had the opportunity to help farmers understand how to manage high input prices, manage labor related issues as well as several new production issues. The team created flyers that were used in all 3 county newsletter mailings encompassing 550 producers as well as posting on all 3 county Facebook pages and the newly established Tri-County Ag Extension Group Facebook page. Over 150 producers that account for 75% of the acreages in these focused groups took part in these programs. As one producer was quoted "These type of programs are what make Extension such a valuable resource to us as producers". 

The Tri-County Extension Group was selected as the State KACAA winner and as a National Winner for NACAA for Audio Programs that were a part of this series.