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.
Agriculture and Natural Resources
UGA Cooperative Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources agents provide answers for homeowners and farmers about many topics including, but not limited to: soil fertility, safe pesticide application, water usage, home gardening, and crop and pasture management. Agriculture is one of McDuffie County’s leading industries. McDuffie County's agricultural make-up consists of two major container plant nurseries, several large cow/calf operations, and a variety of smaller livestock producers. For producers, farmers, and homeowners to be prosperous in their ventures we offer many types of testing including soil, feed/forage, water, microbiology, and animal waste. The Extension office submitted 290 samples for testing last year: 1 animal waste, 18 feed & forage, 15, microbiology, 239 soil and 17 water & pond. The Extension office provides residents a broad spectrum of free publications to address many agricultural areas including forage management, livestock care, horticulture, and pesticide use. The McDuffie County Agricultural and Natural Resources (ANR) agent, Sarah Cranston, conducted 32 adult education programs reaching 406 participants and made 770 office contacts (phone/written/office visits). She was responsible for 38 sample diagnoses, and provided 83 site visits relating to homeowner horticulture and pasture management.
4-H Youth Development
Positive youth development through Georgia 4-H assists young people in acquiring knowledge, developing life skills, and forming attitudes that will enable them to become self-directing, productive and contributing members of society. McDuffie County offers youth development opportunities for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. 290 5th grade youth participated in McDuffie County 4-H, and offered virtual recordings when face-to-face programming was limited. McDuffie County took students to District Project Achievement where several participants we top 3 winners in different categories. McDuffie County youth also had the privilege of attending summer camp, where there was an increase of 675% youth involvement from the previous year. We also offer a Cloverbuds program for homeschoolers in PreK through 4th grade, as well as have an active shotgun team. All these opportunities have a positive impact on the lives of McDuffie County 4-H’ers. The skills learned through 4-H programming will benefit these young people and the community now and in the future.
Family and Consumer Sciences
The McDuffie County FACS Agent taught 660 participants Health and Wellness sessions that resulted in 660 educational contact hours. Of the participants who attended, 95% indicated they will use the information shared through the program with 80% indicating they felt very knowledgeable after learning health and wellness techniques compared to 27% prior to the program. The FACS agent plans to continue offering health and wellness programs to the citizen of McDuffie County in an effort to create a culture of positive change.
The Family and Consumer Sciences Agent is also a part of a statewide effort to implement a small team’s that will enhance UGA Extension’s capacity to respond to natural disasters and emergencies that impact Georgia. The FACS agent was a program development committee member for Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN), a collaborative multi-state effort by Cooperative Extension Services across the county to improve the delivery of services to citizens affected by disasters. The agent also co-presented an international presentation, Developing Healthy and Sustainable Emergency Management Practices, to 40 participants at the International Federation of Home Economics Conference.
The FACS Agent will also be offering ServSafe® classes.