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
Unfortunatley, due to several unavoidable circumstance, the Jenkins County 4-H has had to work minimally over the last three years. However, as always, Jenkins County strives for greatness. With a completely new staff, Jenkins County 4-H is ready to rebuild the program. With a wonderful group of kids participating in events like Cloverleaf District Project Achievement, Junior/Senior Project Achievement, Project S.A.F.E., members exhibiting livestock, and students ready to attend summer camp, the Jenkins County 4-H program is evolving and will continues to grow. Students will have even more opportunites to become involved and develop life skills through many valuable learning expereinces.
Agriculture and Natural Resources
From row crops to cattle and hay, pines to locally grown vegetables, peaches and pecans, Jenkins County is a diverse agricultural production county. Annually, Jenkins County producers grow around 40,000 acres of row crops including cotton, corn, peanuts and soybeans. According to the Farm Gate Value Report, production agriculture fuels the economy of Jenkins County to the tune of $45,149,580 per year. With everchanging technologies, crop varieties, weather conditions and more, there are many concerns and decisions producers must face each year. With this in mind, the Jenkins County Agriculture and Natural Resources agent focuses on cotton, corn and soybean varieties, irrigation management practices, deer control, nematode and disease control in various crops, insect management, cover crops, Bermudagrass Stem Maggots in forages, casebearer moths in pecans, burrower bugs in peanuts, and peanut maturity. Through the work of UGA Cooperative Extension, the Jenkins County agent is able to provide research-based information to the producers of the county in order to help them make the best, most-informed decisions, allowing them to become more sustainable and produce higher-quality and higher-yielding crops.