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
Lamar County 4-H implemented the "Learn, Grow, Eat and Go!" program to address nutrition and physical activity for children in grades 3-5. The program was delivered as part of a summer day camp and as a 10 week afterschool program. Students participated in garden scavenger hunts and relay races to encourage physical activity. The students also planted, cultivated and harvested vegetables for use in program cooking activities. Approximately 20 educational sessions were held with participants receiving approximately 173 educational contact hours. At the conclusion of the program, 15 pounds of produce was donated to the local Division of Family and Children Services.
Agriculture and Natural Resources
Lamar County covers a wide range of agricultural commodities. The top four commodities include Poultry, Timber, Cattle, and Hay/Forages.
The extension office has many educational and agricultural resources for all types of commodities and other individuals in the community. We offer testing for water, soil, forage, and poultry litter. We identify insects, insect damage, different vegetation, plant diseases, plant damage, pasture and turf weeds.
Over the past year, Lamar/Upson County Extension hosted several producer-oriented workshops for the surrounding counties, allowing participants to earn credit hours for their private and commercial pesticide licenses and gain knowledge needed to identify problems and implement solutions on their farms. We also hosted monthly Lunch N Learns for adults in the community to learn about a range of different homeowner agriculture topics.
A main highlight was our successful Beef Cattle series. We host two session of this series, at the beginning of the year we held the Beef Cattle 101 series and then in the fall we hosted the Beef Cattle 201 series. Both programs focused on cattle and forage management for producers in Georgia. This program was a collaboration with the extension office, Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), and Natural Resource Conservation District (NRCS).
As usual, the Southeastern Hay Contest was a success. More than 60 samples from Upson and Lamar counties were entered, with producers placing top three in their respective categories. Our counties are continuing to be recognized for our pride in producing high quality forages.