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| This Week's Titles: |
| Southwest
Georgia Counties Train Childcare Providers |
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Teaching Students The Importance
Of Agriculture |
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| Pesticide
Applicators Receive Important Training |
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| Dry
Weather Wilting Georgia's 2006 Peanut Crop |
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| A
Growing Weed Problem In Landscapes |
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| Southwest
Georgia Counties Train Childcare Providers |
1:36 |
Two counties in Southwest Georgia
are working to improve the state's image when it comes to childcare. |
Childcare in Georgia ranks
among the poorest in the nation. The reasons for this poor grade
include limited regulatory services and the lack of training
and experience in childcare staff. In the late nineties, Thomas
and Grady Counties began looking at the needs of childcare providers,
and how those needs could be met. Rebecca Moore, a county extension
agent in Thomas County says workshops were offered to provide
training to childcare providers to help them meet state requirements.
"Training could be anything related to childcare as far as ages
and stages, developmental kind of things, discipline, working
with parents, actual hands on teaching, giving them tips for
how to work with children." Rebecca Moore with the University
of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Around 540 childcare providers have received twenty-one hours
of state approved training credits in Thomas and Grady Counties.
The local training helped workshop participants save over three-thousand
dollars in registration fees. Money was also saved on fuel,
meals, and other expenses needed to travel fifty to a hundred
miles to attend this training in another location. John Harrell,
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences, reporting from Tifton. |
Links to audio files:
(files include a brief quote from the source for your use.)
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| Teaching
Students The Importance Of Agriculture |
1:28 |
A county in East Central Georgia
is working to keep students informed on the importance of agriculture
in their lives. |
Greene County has experienced
a lot of growth in recent years which has caused some concern
in the local agri-business industry. To help keep agriculture
alive and well in Greene County, students in the third grade
through high school have been learning about the importance
of agriculture to all citizens in the county, according to Paula
Moore, a 4-H program specialist in Greene County. "Whether it
be from the cotton industry or the horse or dairy industry poultry
we do all those sorts of things to kind of let them know not
only what is offered in Greene County but just how their lives
in general are affected by agriculture." Paula Moore with the
University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences. Students in Greene County took part in dairy quiz
bowls, poultry judging contests, and a state pumpkin growing
contest to learn about the impact of agriculture. Reports from
parents, teachers, and the students indicate there was a significant
increase in the awareness of the positive effects of the agricultural
industry to individuals, families, and the county. John Harrell,
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences, reporting from Tifton. |
Links to audio files:
(files include a brief quote from the source for your use.)
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| Pesticide
Applicators Receive Important Training |
1:30 |
Agricultural pesticide applicators
continue to receive important training, so the chemicals can
do a better job knocking out the bad guys in crops. |
With environmental concerns
increasing regarding the use of pesticides, especially on farms,
pesticide applicators need top quality training. Frank Henning,
a scientist with the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences says this important training was
also needed in North Georgia. So eleven counties near Athens
were recently involved with pesticide training, to help North
Georgia pesticide applicators. He adds several important topics
are covered in the training. "Kind of insuring that not only
that the pesticides work effectively, but in using them correctly
the person applying them protects themselves and they're also
going to do a lot better job of protecting the environment."
Frank Henning with the College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences. Around 210 Pesticide Applicators in these eleven North
Georgia counties received 505 hours of recertification training
The training helped pesticide applicators improve safety and
efficiency when applying chemicals, and helped farmers, landscape
businesses, and homeowners save money. John Harrell, University
of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences,
reporting from Tifton. |
Links to audio files:
(files include a brief quote from the source for your use.)
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| Dry
Weather Wilting Georgia's 2006 Peanut Crop |
1:20 |
Farmers fear peanut yields
and profit potential for 2006 will dry up in the late summer
heat. |
Hot, dry weather, along
with below normal rainfall has put this year's peanut crop under
a lot of stress, especially dryland acres. John Beasley, a scientist
with the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences says the 2006 peanut crop has had a hard
time getting a good drink of water this year. "We've had high
temperatures, we have dry weather, seems like the wind kicked
up more this year, lower humidity, anything that would take
moisture out of the soil and out of the plants quicker and faster,
we had those kind of conditions this year so it's been a tough
year." John Beasley with the College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences. With lower peanut yields expected this year, determining
peanut maturity and when to dig and harvest will be even more
critical this year. Local county extension offices will help
growers with maturity profiling, so they won't lose more yields
and money by digging and harvesting at the wrong time. John
Harrell, University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences, reporting from Tifton. |
Links to audio files:
(files include a brief quote from the source for your use.)
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| A Growing
Weed Problem In Landscapes |
1:28 |
Some stubborn weeds are causing
problems as they grow into landscape gardens across the state. |
Every year people with landscape
gardens struggle to keep weeds from crowding out trees and shrubs
for moisture and nutrients. But a scientist with the University
of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
says annual weeds called leaf flower are a growing problem in
landscapes, and the container plant industry. These weeds are
tough, and can even survive withering droughts. "Yeah, it's
extremely drought tolerant, it's in a plant family that's extremely
tolerant to dry weather. We'll start to see that plant germinating
about May, June even here in Georgia that's a real dry time
generally in Georgia so it's quite adapted to those situations."
That was Mark Czarnota with the College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences. One approach to controlling leaf flower
weeds is to maintain a two to four inch layer mulch. Not many
weeds will survive if they have to work their way through a
thick layer of mulch. There are several herbicides on the market
that do a good job controlling leaf flower weeds. If a small
number of these weeds are growing, they can be removed by hand.
But an effort should be made to remove them all, since leaf
flower weeds can produce a lot of seeds, and grow into more
problems. John Harrell, University of Georgia College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences, reporting from Tifton. |
Links to audio files:
(files include a brief quote from the source for your use.)
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