Our Impact
Making A Difference in Our County
University of Georgia Cooperative Extension is working hard for its constituents. The following are examples of Extension’s impact in the county over the past year.
4-H Youth Development
COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) continues to create uncertainty and concern both globally and within our community in Early County. The national and local lockdowns have interrupted conventional schooling with school closures. Early County schools were shut down from March-September. Early County started back in a hybrid format of two days face to face and three days virtual. Early County 4-H made efforts to maintain learning continuity during this period through one club meeting, four zoom meeting, social media post/videos, one educational packet, and face to face District Project achievement meetings. Virtual and face to face learning and projects impacted 413 4-Her’s directly and 430 indirectly via social media.
Agriculture and Natural Resources
Cotton growers in the area were able to look at multiple years of county data to make a better decision on varieties they had no experience with. Through these variety trials we have found varieties with trait packages that yield well and have also discounted others. The fact that producers in Early County can plant a variety with confidence, that it has the potential to give him or her a profit because they have seen local data on the variety, saves them time and money. The top yielding varieties from these trials have consistently yielded over 200 pounds of lint per acre over the bottom varieties. By choosing these higher yielding varieties, producers have the potential increase of $128.00 per acre at the $0.64 price or over $4,608,000.00 as a county annually.
Family and Consumer Sciences
A total of 8 news articles were featured in the Early County News, focusing on topics within healthy housing. The articles reached 11,428 household each week, with the complete series impacting over 91,424 households. Responses from readers noted that, “knowing that I needed to start the task of cleaning out and downsizing my home, this article was very inspiring,” and “having problems with mold and moisture in my home, your article encouraged me to be more mindful of things to do to prevent them in the home.” By addressing any of the recommendations featured in the news articles would have direct impact on individuals living in the home through better health and quality of life.