Farmworker Safety Day

Over 250 participants attended a Farmworker Safety Day yesterday at Cline Church Nursery in Ashe County. Over 190 farmworkers from Ashe, Watauga, Alleghany, and Avery rotated through stations covering pesticide safety, health & first aid, chainsaw safety, backpack sprayer maintenance, hazardous farm plants and critters, heavy equipment safety, and local laws/customs. Watauga & Avery Farm Bureau, Carolina Farm Credit, and Southern Ag sponsored this event which was organized by Watauga & Ashe Cooperative Extension and the North Carolina Agromedicine Institute.

Presenters included: Katie Gray, a naturalist from Grandfather Mountain, Denny Paternak and Jimmy Cox from the NC Highway Patrol, Russel Choate from the NC Division of Forest Resources, Keith Eller from the Upper Mountain Research Station, Emily Dixon and her staff from the Farmworker Health Program, Jill Sidebottom & Jeff Owen, conifer specialists from NC Cooperative Extension, Cliff Parker, an ag liability and crop insurance consultant, and Ritchie Gardener from CPS.

Translators were on hand at each station, as a majority of the farmworker participants were Spanish-speakers from the Christmas tree and landscaping industries.

4-H’ers Earn Recognition

Emily Cornett, 18 year old 4-H member, has earned the 4-H Gold Achievement medal.  The NC 4-H Achievement Plan program helps youth set goals in 4-H. Emily demonstrated incredible self-initiative and follow-through to complete the plan.  To earn the award, she worked through three other levels over several years and had seventeen tasks to complete for the gold medal.  Emily is aging out of 4-H.  Over the years, she Emily has been a stellar 4-H member, participating in projects from animals to expressive arts, to participating the presentation and project record programs, to serving as club president, leading groups with kids and more. 

Erica Cornett entered district competition for the 4-H presentation program.  She delivered a demonstration on scrapbooking, earning her a silver medal.   Her presentation inspired others to get started scrapbooking!  She also received a silver medal for her project record in the animal science category with her project on rabbits.

4-H Super Summer

4-H Super Summer is ready to roll.  Registration is open for our summer workshops.  Activities include our Pizza Adventure daycamp and exploring fun, creative topics such as plants, chocolate, gardens, birds and more!

To register, come by our office for a registration form or download from here. 

Return the registration form by mail or in person.

Our office is located at the Agricultural Services Building, 971 West King Street, Boone

No Cones, Please...

Cone production on Fraser fir can mean serious headaches for tree-growers. Heavy cone years vary. When trees come under stress due to drought or other environmental conditions, heavy cone years can follow. Last year (2012) was an especially heavy cone year. Growers spent tens of thousands of dollars in labor manually removing cones, which also take away from top-growth production and create unsightly 'pegs' that endure after the cones crumble and release their seeds in the summer.

Last year, Christmas tree specialist Jeff Owen began cone-spraying trials to try and identify an herbicide or plant regulator hormone that might stop or alter cone production. This work was tricky...trying to guess which field might have a high prevalence of cones next year and growers who didn't mind risking some of their trees getting 'burned' in the process. He is continuing this work in 2013.

IPM Technician Brad Edwards sprays cones on farm in Watauga County

Parents of 10-16 Year Olds

If you are interested in learning more about what makes your tween or teen tick and would you like the opportunity to interact with other parents who have some of the same challenges and questions as you do, check out myparenthetical.com, an online site offered by the University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension for parents of children between the ages of 10-16. Parenthetical is a combination website, blog and social network. The site provides information and discussion on a range of topics of interest to parents with children in their emerging teen years as well as opportunities for support from other parents experiencing many of the same needs and issues. Posts include subjects like parent-child conflict, discipline and limit setting, middle school romantic and peer relationships, the challenges of school achievement and much more. Parenthetical is available online 24/7 and parents can participate from any web-accessible device. 

Click here for a nice reminder about teen forgetfulness. 

You'll be sorely missed, Charles.

Watauga County lost one of its best this weekend. Charles Church. His commitment to agriculture and our local food economy was an inspiration to countless farmers and those who had the privilege to work with him.