The Cooperative Extension provides educational programming to residents about horticulture, livestock, farm crops, poultry, and pesticides. They also administer the local 4-H youth program and offer Serv Safe classes.
This department is in joint partnership with NC State University, USDA, and Alamance County.
2022-2023 Workload Measures
1. Number of producers attending training-increase in profitability
2. Number of individual farm visits for production issues
3. Number of pesticide applicators receiving recertification training
4. Number of Master Gardener Volunteer-money saved through volunteer efforts
5. Number of Master Gardener Volunteer hours
6. Track the number of people who attend agricultural educational programs
7. Number of persons receiving SERV Safe or Safe Plates training
8. Number of youth agricultural programming participants
9. Number of embryology program participation
10. Number of Persons receiving Newsletter Correspondence from the Cooperative Extension
11. Number of individuals making healthy lifestyle changes (in areas of nutrition or physical activity)
12. Number of individuals increasing local food consumption due to preparation or preservation techniques learned
13. Number of farms listed on local foods website (cumulative listing)
14. Number of farms/local food businesses listed on the Visit NC Farms app
15. Number of people (public) being connected to farms through our local foods’ website and the Visit NC Farms app
Updated 7/20/22
| 2022-2023 Performance Management Goals | |
|---|---|
| Goals | Progress |
| 1) To increase agricultural education to current farmers, Cooperative Extension will provide 5 educational programs for field crop and livestock producers, which include conferences (i.e. regional beef conference, regional goat and sheep conference, and regional field crops conference), poultry production, and pasture management as well as GAP training for tobacco producers. | In Progress |
| 2) To increase agricultural education, Cooperative Extension will produce and disseminate quarterly newsletters for field crop, livestock producers and consumers (FCS) and monthly newsletters for horticulturists. | In Progress |
| 3) To support current and potential farmers, Cooperative Extension will provide telephone and email technical assistance for producers. | In Progress |
| 4) To support current and potential farmers, Cooperative Extension will provide a minimum of 75 one-on-one farm visits for production issues. | In Progress |
| 5) To support current and potential farmers, Cooperative Extension will provide 8 pesticide continuing education classes for producers. | In Progress |
| 6) To increase agricultural education to students, Cooperative Extension will offer 3 embryology sessions in local schools to increase agriculture awareness. | In Progress |
| 7) To increase participation and awareness of agricultural resources, Cooperative Extension will promote the Think Green Thursdays video series by advertising a least twice in the Resident Newsletter, County Social Media, Cooperative Extension Social Media, and the Cooperative Extension Newsletter. | In Progress |
| 8) To further support the farming and -potential farming community, Cooperative Extension will promote the Buster Sykes Demonstration Orchard where residents can learn proper growing techniques such as pruning, fruit thinning, pest management, and forest management through 2 workshops. | In Progress |
| 9) To encourage and support youth agricultural programming, Cooperative Extension will sponsor youth agricultural programming and resources through Extension efforts such as the 4-H youth livestock program (judging, skillathon, quiz bowl): summer 4-H opportunities (camps, farm tours) and farm to table (agriculture program for 4th graders). | In Progress |
| 10) To further support the farming and non-farming community, Extension Master Gardeners will provide educational opportunities for the public that include: Think Green Thursdays gardening classes, Farm to Table program, Homegrown in the Park, Herb Festival, wellness fairs, and local farmers markets. | In Progress |
| 11) To increase consumption of local foods by demonstrating ways to prepare and preserve produce grown, either commercially or at home, through hands-on workshops and interactive food demos. | In Progress |
| 12) To encourage healthy lifestyle changes in the areas of nutrition and physical activity in order to prevent chronic disease (such as diabetes & Cardio vascular disease) through educational classes. | In Progress |
| 13) To increase food safety of our food establishments through food safety manager training classes. | In Progress |
