UGA Extension Office

Our Impact

Making A Difference in Our County

University of Georgia Cooperative Extension is working hard for its constituents. We translate the science of everyday living for families, farmers and communities to foster a healthy and prosperous Georgia.  The following are examples of Extension’s impact in the county over the past year.

Agriculture and Natural Resources

UGA Cooperative Extension in Cook County provides lifelong learning to the people of Cook County through unbiased, research-based education about agriculture, the environment, communities, youth and families. This information is generated by university specialists and disseminated through the Cook County Extension office to residents of the county via informal educational meetings, newsletters, blogs, emails and newspaper articles and Social Media. This county delivery system has been an effective tool for UGA Extension for more than 100 years.

Cook County is an agriculture-based community. In 2021, Cook County had a total farm gate value of more than $$118,659,789. Cook County is home to traditional crops like corn, cotton, peanuts and soybeans, in addition to fruits and vegetables. Peppers, cabbage, collards, kale, squash, blueberries, blackberries, persimmons, and muscadines are produced in Cook County. The Cook County Extension office is a Cook County Farmer's go -to-source for accessing the latest, unbiased, research-based information related to agricultural production.

Much of this research-based information is generated locally on Cook County farms through UGA research trails investigating pecan ambrosia beetle trapping, crop fungicide effectiveness and cotton variety performance. In 2022 Cook Extension facilitated watermelon fursarium trials to investigate fungicide and grafted plant effectiveness in control of the disease in watermelons; 2 cotton variety trials to investigate variety performance locally; a 15-acre peanut fungicide trail to evaluate fungicides for white mold efficacy; and monitored pecan ambrosia beetles pecan nut casebearer moths via traps in commercial pecan orchards. Data generated from Cook County agricultural trials are disseminated locally in addition to being used by UGA Agriculture Specialists to present at county agricultural production meetings. Cook County field trail data has been presented locally in addition to the Annual Peanut Farm Show, American Peanut Research and Education Society (APRES) (Dallas, TX), and Beltwide Cotton Conference (New Orleans, LA) annual meetings.

Cook County Extension disseminates information locally through field site consultations, office visits, social media, texts, email and blog site posts.

4-H Youth Development

The Cook County 4-H Program, led by 4-H Agent Katrina Laurel-Searcy, provides fun and educational activities including outdoor experiential learning and in-school program delivery. This allows 4-H members to acquire knowledge, develop life skills and form attitudes that will enable them to become self-directing, productive and contributing members of society. A total of 966 youth enrolled in the club in 2022.

Cook County 4-H provides agricultural science programs to educate rural youth on agriculture, crop production, food sustainability, fiber, natural resources, fisheries and the environment. This is accomplished via the Georgia 4-H agricultural science curriculum and collaborations with other agriculture related entities. Cook 4-H Club initiated a partnership with FMC, an Agricultural Sciences Company, to promote 4-H youth literacy through educational farm and laboratory tours of their facilities. In addition, a collaboration with Reed Bingham State Park gave 4-H youth access to their facilities to complete hands-on outdoor activities which was a springboard to a “4-H Fishing Club” and a competitive forestry judging team. Upon invitation from Cook County School system, the Cook 4-H Agent became the primary source of agriculture curriculum during the system’s summer school program “SOAR” (Summer of Achieving Readiness). Utilizing Georgia 4-H agricultural science curriculum, the Cook 4-H agent taught lessons that bridge the gap between living in a rural area and having a better understanding of agriculture. Before program onset, most elementary school-aged youth have not participated in classroom learning opportunities focused on agriculture. After program onset, 692 youth participated in some form of 4-H agricultural science program.
Additionally, Cook 4-H offers Cotton Boll and Consumer Judging Team, 4-H BB Team, Cooking Club, 4-H Yoga, global citizenship awareness programs, nutrition education, Project Achievement, residential camping experience through 4-H summer camps and leadership opportunities through county council and leadership positions at the district level. In 2022, Cook 4-H had three members represent our local club as elected officers of the Southwest District Junior Board of Directors.

Download Our Annual Report (pdf)