Our Impact
Making A Difference in Our County
University of Georgia Cooperative Extension is working hard for it's constituents. The following are examples of Extension’s impact in the county over the past year.
4-H Youth Development
Over the past year, the 4-H staff has been working with all the schools in the county to help educate our youth. During the 2023-2024 school year, approximately 599 4th and 5th grade youth participated in our 4-H STEM inspired lessons at Upson-Lee Elementary School and Skipstone Academy, 49 6th-8th graders participated in our teamwork lessons at both Upson-Lee and Skipstone Academy, 30 kinder-5th graders participated in our arts/careers/teamwork lessons at Hope Virtual Academy, and 15 6th-8th graders participated in our arts/careers/teamwork lessons at Hope Virtual Academy. All lessons were taught face-to-face, working with the staff at each of the schools within the county.
Aside from our in-school club meetings, we also host a wide range of other meetings, activities, and camps. In 2023-2024 we held our monthly homeschool club whose lessons were focused on careers. We hosted numerous county contests including: peanutrition, milkmake, and pumpkin decorating contest. We also participated in many state contests including: BB Gun, Shotgun, Poultry Judging, Project Achievement, and Cotton Bowl and Consumer Judging. Throughout the year we host numerous afterschool programs including: Cloverleaf Club, Cloverbud Club, Cooking Classes, Craft Days, Holiday Parties and many more!
This summer we ran (and plan to run again) a Summer Day Camp at the Civic Center for grades K-5th. It's a four week camp (month of June), Monday-Friday, where youth go on fields trips, do crafts, learn games/sports, go swimming, do STEM activities, and just have fun. We also host a summer program where students are able to go on fun field trips, and participate in the two ag camps, during the month of July.
Our office offers a wide range of activities throughout the year for the youth in our community.
Agriculture and Natural Resources
Upson 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, 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.
Employee Spotlight/Awards
In 2023 our Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent won the Top Georgia Agent for the Southeastern Hay Contest. She is also serving as the Georgia Cattlewomen's President for 2023 and 2024.
In 2024 our Extension Administrative Coordinator became the President of the Georgia Extension Secretary Association (GESA).