Researched-Relevant-AgriLife-Discussion

Danny Nusser — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 10:00:09 +0000

Commodity Workshops (Retreats)
Program planning activities are just around the corner with the Beef/Range/Wildlife group kicking things off on August 24 in Quitaque (all dates below). If you haven’t signed up, please do so on the following link; http://agrilife.org/northregionanr/program-planning/ The programs will begin at 9:00 a.m. with review, ideas for 2017, introductions, etc. The agenda and activities are below:

Review, Agent Introductions, Updates, Ideas for 2017, Etc.
(During this session we will review efforts towards regional programming, look at results of the Qualtrics evaluation, review the professional development tracts and plans for the future, discuss technology going forward, RRAD, Radio Programs, Etc.)

Technology Training
(Holly Jarvis Whitaker will visit with us about connecting our facebook pages and working together to educate, promote, and deliver information. She will also give us some insight into utilizing facebook live to share information online in live time)

Program Planning
(Potential Regional efforts, Program Indicator/Teaching Method review and updates, Demonstration Ideas, and Training Ideas)

Specialist Scheduling
(This will be the First Opportunity to schedule specialists face to face for those that are ready. We will also conduct an on-line scheduling effort later for those that are not quite ready with plans. Specialists will have a few minutes to share issues, demonstration opportunities, and resources available)

Workshop Dates:
August 24 (Quitaque) Beef/Range/Wildlife
August 26 (Randall County Extension Office) Feed Grains/Small Grains/Dairy
August 31 (Spirit Ranch in Lubbock) Cotton

RRAD
So you might have recognized “RRAD” mentioned several times in the past few weeks and some may wonder what is going on. RRAD stands for Researched-Relevant-AgriLife-Discussion and the idea was born from discussion and observation from visiting with an agent during planning along with attendance issues/lack of programs during the summer. We will get into this more during the retreats but I wanted to give you a short version of some of the possibilities.

We are basically branding a series of educational deliveries that could be used in your county, multicounty, or regional programs. You might currently recognize these as concurrent sessions, turn row meetings, gin meetings, lunch with the agronomist, etc. It’s not a new approach; just more organized in the delivery of information. The basics would be the following;

specialist or agent (or both) delivers a focused topic with equal time for delivery of information and discussion from participants
timely information presented in factual, short presentation
programs designed to fit producer’s schedules and current issues

Why do this? It’s just another way of delivering information to producers. My first thought is having a plan to provide education during the growing season when we have something to show them (ex. summer) or when they don’t have all day to come to a meeting. The low attendance at the field days and programs we have this time of year also contributed to this thinking. The idea is to plan a short series of programs that give them information and allows them to get back to work or concurrent efforts and also allows them to choose the topics and attend to their needs. Here are some advantages I could think of:

To provide targeted information to small groups and interact with discussion and questions
To involve everyone in discussion and appeal to young producers
To help us stay plugged-in to questions and issues that producers have
To provide opportunities to keep programs short and to the point during busy schedules
So agents can participate, teach, provide input, and build credibility

ZIKA resources
Last week you all received an email from Dr. Ballabina about the statewide effort to address Zika Virus. Take this serious because it is expected that you provide a serious and effective educational effort to the citizens in your county regarding Zika. It’s our responsibility to make sure that folks are aware of the facts and are able to protect themselves. I know several of you are ahead of this request and have been attacking this issue already, but this needs to be implemented in every county.

As you should have noticed, there are excellent resources at the link below that should give you all the information needed to get started with media, local civic groups, social media, etc. Utilize your normal and most effective means to get the word out because no one is more prepared than you to address this issue. The password is Zika&2016. Each county should develop a plan to use these resources and report it in TEXASDATA using the word Zika in your task title. Use this word to identify the tasks and allow the state to retrieve our efforts for state interpretation. Thanks for doing what you do best.

http://entomology.tamu.edu/zika-materials-for-extension-agents/

Agents On-line Applicator Training
It has been pointed out that the link that was provided in the last blog is broken regarding your required training for pesticide applicator information. Please go to the link below and use the password agrilifepact to access the training. Note this is the agent only resource site for Dr. Renchie and I would encourage you to bookmark this site.

http://agrilife.org/aes/pesticide-safety-education-resources/private-applicator-pesticide-certification-training/

Radio programs next week
August 15 – Jason Miller
August 16 – Tanner Young
August 17 – Calvin Trostle
August 18 – Gaylon Morgan
August 19 – Andy Holloway

North Region ANR

Researched-Relevant-AgriLife-Discussion