Starting the Garden with Transplants

In the spring and fall, carefully prepared trays of young vegetable plants grace garden centers everywhere, signaling the start of garden season. Many times, the varieties available in retail centers are not the best-tasting or best-adapted varieties for our area. Starting your own vegetable transplants is fun and easy. This publication provides considerations and best practices for selecting the best crops to transplant and how to prepare transplants for home and community gardens in Florida. Original version: Stephens, James M. (1994) Starting the Garden with Transplants. Fact Sheet HS-507, April 1994. Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Gainesville, FL

Seeding the Garden

Growing your own Florida vegetable garden can be a rewarding experience with a little planning. This 5-page publication of the UF/IFAS Horticultural Sciences Department presents an overview of proper seed selection and planting. It also provides best management practices, as well as relevant terms and methods, for seeding vegetables in home and community gardens. Written by Danielle Treadwell, David Outerbridge, Tabitha Petri, and James M. Stephens.https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh026 Original Publication: Stephens, James M. (1994) Seeding the Garden. Fact Sheet HS-506 (March 1994). Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Gainesville FL.

Learning by Design: Development of Nutrition Education Infographics with an Experiential Twist

Objectives The purpose of this course project was the development and ultimate dissemination of original, evidence-based nutrition information in collaboration with nutrition educators within the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service using an experiential learning model. Methods An experiential learning course was designed to tailor student-learning outcomes with a goal of creating novel nutrition infographics to address topics of student interest and consumer inquiry. Faculty within Family and Consumer Sciences Extension were consulted to obtain guidelines, information and needs to facilitate the design of infographics that would best identify with Kentuckians across the commonwealth. Infographic topics were chosen based on their need for clarity among the Extension audience as well as popularity on social media channels. Each infographic went through rounds of revisions by the faculty supervisor and Extension faculty, with the final copy to be disseminated through University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Offices. Results Eight original infographics were developed through the completion of this experiential learning course. Five infographics focused on clarifying popular, yet controversial nutrition topics such as “Keto 101: Basics of the Keto Diet” and “Intermittent Fasting: What's the Fast About?”. The remaining three infographics described health impacts of micronutrients, antioxidants and culinary guidelines for popular cooking oils. Infographics are available to agents for distribution through scheduled workshops, the Internet, social media channels, etc. Conclusions An experiential learning course is an effective model for students to pursue their interests while creating evidence-based, usable nutrition information and resources for a larger audience. The infographics generated will reach rural families through the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service to educate and clarify popular, controversial topics in nutrition. As consumers’ sources of news and information is varied, it will be important that nutrition education evolve in order for credible nutrition information to be “shared”. Funding Sources This course was created through a collaboration between the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences and the James W. Stuckert Career Center at the University of Kentucky.

Bridging Worlds: Utilizing a Multi-Stakeholder Framework to Create Extension–Tourism Partnerships

Some counties in the United States are turning to visions of sustainable development in response to increasing environmental problems caused by land use expansion and intensification. Sustainable tourism is one industry capable of fostering this change because of its relationship to all facets of a destination, from transportation and culture to natural resource management. This paper addresses a study that examined what support tourism destinations in Florida need from the Cooperative Extension Service to better utilize natural areas as responsible tourism attractions to benefit the local community, economy, and biodiversity (i.e., ecotourism). A nominal group technique, questionnaires, and interviews with local tourism professionals were used to investigate needs and support for ecotourism development. Results show, when nature-based tourism products are present, growth in ecotourism market supply is desired by tourism providers. Results also indicate that this growth is possible with the help of Extension agents, who would serve as educators on responsible tourism topics and facilitate partnerships between government, businesses, local residents, and visitors. Integrating these results into the (2013) multi-stakeholder framework developed by Waligo et al. for sustainable tourism development, this paper outlines reasoning and process for the Cooperative Extension Service to provide important support for a prevalent natural resource use.

63 Development and application of a veterinary survey to assess food animal veterinarian shortages: A collaboration between the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service and the Arkansas Veterinary Board

Veterinarians are in demand due to regulatory changes that require more veterinary oversight in food animal production. The USDA identifies thirteen counties in Arkansas as having food animal veterinarian deficiencies. In response to the report, the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service collaborated with the Arkansas Veterinary Board to devise a strategy for alleviating the shortages. Upon permission by the veterinary board, Arkansas Extension developed a survey to assess the status and needs of Arkansas veterinarians. The questionnaire was included in the veterinarian license renewal packet, asking - How many doctors are in your practice? What species are you willing to treat? Do any of your doctors do farm calls? For which counties do you provide farm calls? Are you aware of changes to the FDA Veterinary Feed Directive? Would you be interested in learning honey bee medicine? Would you be interested in joining the Arkansas Animal Emergency Response Team? Would you be willing to be a mentor for the 4-H Vet Science Program? Would you like your email included on notifications from the Arkansas VMA? Are there any continuing education (CE) topics that you feel need attention? Of the 965 actively licensed Arkansas veterinarians, 537 returned their responses to the survey. Data was entered into an Excel spreadsheet and shared with the Arkansas Veterinary Board, the Arkansas VMA, and the Arkansas State Veterinarian Office. Using the data, Extension created a comprehensive food animal veterinarian directory that was distributed at various producer meetings and made available electronically on the Extension website. CE suggestions were used to develop the Food Animal Medicine Workshop Series, which was awarded funding by the USDA NIFA Veterinary Services Grant Program. The goal of the CE series is to re-train existing mixed animal veterinarians to improve food animal veterinary coverage for Arkansas producers

The Role of Flow in the Everglades Landscape

The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) aims to improve water quantity, timing, distribution, and quality of the Greater Everglades System (Figure 1) over the next 35 years (SFERTF 1998). Not only is it the most expensive (8 billion dollars, 1999) and ambitious ecological restoration ever undertaken, but it involves multiple agencies and organizations analyzing natural and ecological attributes to recover the natural system. A critically important but often overlooked aspect of the Everglades is the role of flow--the actual movement of water across the landscape--in creation and maintenance of habitats for Everglades plants and animals. Successful restoration of the Everglades landscape requires a thorough understanding of the role of flow (SCT 2003). This document is CIR1452, one of a series of the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department, University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Publication date: December, 2004. CIR 1452/UW199: The Role of Flow in the Everglades Landscape (ufl.edu)

A Ground Beetle, Calleida decora (Fabricius) (Insecta: Coleoptera: Carabidae)

Calleida decora (Fabricius) is a small arboreal ground beetle, predaceous both as larva and adult. Common on various cultivated crops, it is apparently the only carabid to complete its larval development on Florida soybean foliage (Neal 1974). It is believed to be a major factor in suppression of several lepidopterous pests, e.g., velvetbean caterpillar, Anticarsia gemmatalis Hübner, on soybeans. This document is EENY-331 (originally published as DPI Entomology Circular 278), one of a series of Featured Creatures from the Entomology and Nematology Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Published: July 2004. EENY331/IN604: A Ground Beetle, Calleida decora (Fabricius) (Insecta: Coleoptera: Carabidae) (ufl.edu)

Reaching Diverse Audiences

This paper is the second in a series of articles on planning programs to effectively outreach to diverse audiences. This series will include specialized papers on enhancing cultural competence, recruiting diverse volunteers, planning culturally appropriate marketing strategies, and other topics that are integral to the design and implementation of culturally relevant Extension education programs. This document is FCS9218, one of a series of the Family Youth and Community Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Original publication date September 2005.