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 on the county over the past year.
4-H Youth Development
Jackson County 4-H collaborations with stakeholders are key to successfully meeting the community's needs. Between 2023 and 2024, two such partnerships led to 795 Jackson County 5th-grade students experiencing hands-on agricultural learning and over 120 community members creating resources and educational opportunities focusing on mental health.
Jackson County 4-H partnered with Jackson County FFA Advisors to formulate a program to provide students in 5th grade with an interactive glimpse into the agriculture industry. This program was designed to provide supplemental education related to agriculture, science, and careers standards of the Georgia Standards of Excellence. A one-day program was designed to showcase the importance and diversity of agriculture in Georgia. By highlighting this vital industry, students might realize agriculture's impact on their daily lives and increase their interest in agricultural careers. 795 youth in 5th grade participated in the Jackson County Ag Day on October 26, 2023. Community partners hosted 24 various agriculture-related booths during the 4-hour event. Students visited the educational booths in 10-minute rotations. Over 35 adult volunteers provided the educational content for the program. Following the event, teachers were surveyed to gather feedback. 91% of teachers agreed that the program activities were age-appropriate and had high educational value.
Jackson County 4-H Agent partnered with Jackson County Family Connection, Jackson County Probate Court, the Jackson County Mental Health Task Force, and numerous community businesses to conduct the “Community Rally for Mental Health” to promote mental health awareness and to seek community support to form a National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Jackson, Banks, and Barrow County chapter. Probate Judge Sherry Moore was asked to share her personal experience of losing a family member to suicide and how community involvement in mental health awareness is vital to decreasing the stigma that surrounds mental illness. Additional resources were shared on suicide prevention and mental health awareness for youth experiencing suicidal thoughts. Over 120 members of the community attended the event including law enforcement, church leaders, Jackson County Boy’s and Girl’s Club leaders, school counselors, and community business leaders. A key result of the 2023 “Community Rally for Mental Health” was the creation of the National Alliance on Mental Health leadership team. Together, this multidisciplinary team is working to develop new mental health resources and focus groups to help mitigate the stigma around mental health and to educate the community on the importance of mental health awareness.
In 2024, 1395 youth were enrolled in Jackson County 4-H programs. Jackson County 4-H staff members met with fourth and fifth-grade classrooms once a month during the school year. 4-Her’s also participated in after-school activities and specialty clubs including several competition teams (Cotton Boll and Consumer Judging, Wildlife Judging, Poultry Judging, Land Judging, and Livestock Judging), all four SAFE programs (BB, Shotgun, .22. and Archery), teen leadership opportunities (4-H Day at the Capital, News Network, and Game Guild), cooking clubs, and summer camping programs.
Agriculture and Natural Resources
In 2021, Jackson County ranked 7th in the state of Georgia with a Farm Gate Value of $5,712,000 in hay production. Hay continues to be a vital commodity in Jackson County’s agricultural production needs as the county also ranks 12th in beef cows with a 2021 Farm Gate value of $8,123,625. Hay production and quality play a major role in beef cow production in the county. Due to producer education, Jackson County Extension ranked 2nd in 2021 and ranked 1st in 2022 in Feed and Forage test samples at our UGA Extension Agricultural & Environmental Services Laboratories in Athens. Following multiple years of promoting hay sampling, producers are sampling their hay and making better business decisions based on hay quality from the results. Producers with extremely low-quality hay were able to rotate to better-quality lots of hay or purchase better-quality hay to prevent further weight losses in their cattle herds.
The UGA Jackson County Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent provided one-on-one consultations during more than thirty farm visits, assistance with over 100 hay samples, and interpretation of results. The Extension Agent also supplied over 150 producers with published Extension bulletins specific to forage quality including UGA Extension Bulletin 1425- “Understanding and Improving Forage Quality” as well as Extension Circular 915-“Nitrate Toxicity”. These communications were also an opportunity to introduce producers to the UGA Georgia Forages website which provides research-based information on the most common forage questions in Georgia.
Producers chose to test hay after being educated and encouraged to sample hay over the last several years. Producers better understand that the timing of harvest and fertilization of hay affects the quality of the hay that is intended for cattle production. Producers understand that the $5,712,000 hay crop may not always be the quality needed to keep their $8,123,625 cow/calf production at its highest level of production.