Author: Levi Berg
Planning Unit: Clark County CES
Major Program: Farm Management, Economics and Policy
Plan of Work: Henry County Livestock Production
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
The COVID-19 pandemic on most of 2020-2021 created unique situations which needed addressed especially with regards to agricultural producers. In spring of 2020 until the spring of 2021, Extension Offices were open only to one on one appointments, and large gatherings were not available to ensure safety of staff and clients. The lack of large educational meetings caused many issues for agricultural producers, but a large issue for producers was obtaining the necessary education to either sale agricultural products such as tobacco, obtain private applicator licenses, or obtain beef quality care assurance certifications to sell beef at certain sales or apply for some cost-share options. In 2020, many certifications such as private pesticide applicator extended the expiration date by a year or offered a few online classes to be certified like Beef Quality Care Assurance. However, according to the 2019 census, only about 72.5% of Henry County Households had access to broadband internet, but that internet could be extremely unreliable outside of the few urban areas. Agricultural never stopped during the pandemic, so the Henry County Extension Office wanted to be as flexible to certify/train producers, but also create a safe environment for those producers to learn. The Henry County Extension office wanted to ensure these producers would be able to be certified for private applicator training, Beef Quality Care Assurance, and Tobacco GAP in the spring of 2020. The Henry County Extension Office while working under the COVID-19 guidelines decided to offer multiple smaller educational events for BQCA, private applicator, and Tobacco GAP. This events were limited to were social distancing was available, so significantly reduced capacity, masking for all participants, and also offer a webinar option for those which had reliable internet. Two tobacco gap options were available which trained 29 individuals at the office and trained over 20 individuals remotely. Seven private applicator trainings were offered and trained twenty-two individuals by either in person or remotely via zoom. For Beef Quality Care Assurance, the Henry County Extension Office assisted over 30 individuals with registering for the online sessions where we would provide a computer and assistance for the producer to view the content in the office. The lack of reliable internet and internet service was a large issue to overcome, but by offering computer appointments along with assistance, disinfecting, masking, we were able to train many agricultural producers during the pandemic while offering a safe place.
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