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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAg & Extension 03-02-04 X ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Clarence Malick, Chairman St. Croix County Board FROM: Chris Bethke, Chairman COMMITTEE TITLE: Extension Ag Committee/Resource & Education Committee DATE: March 2, 2004 TIME: 9:00 a.m. LOCATION: Agricultural Services & Education Center CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES ACTION ON VOUCHERS UNFINISHED BUSINESS: ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT • Federal Budget Report • State Budget Report • County Budget Report • Personnel • WACEC • Performance Review of Agents • Plaque Presentation 4 -H YOUTH AGENT'S REPORT • Pork Quality Assurance Training • Photography Workshops • Calf in the Classroom • Summer Assistant Interviews - March 12, 9:30 a.m. —1:30 p.m. AG AGENT'S REPORT • Building a Vision • Pesticide Applicator Training • Grain Marketing Program • Soybean Aphid Meeting • BSE Presentation • Heart of the Farm Conference • Professional Dairy Producers Conference RESOURCE AGENT'S REPORT • Comprehensive planning educational activities • Small business management advising • Drinking water programs FAMILY LIVING AGENT'S REPORT • Family Resource Center Strategic Planning • Nutrition Program: Walk, Dance, and Play focus • Jail Classes, Money for Food and Kid Connection • Housing Resource Network • Mentoring Program HORTICULTURE AGENT'S REPORT NEW BUSINESS: ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE POSSIBLE AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING: ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily presented in this order.) SUBMITTED BY: Kim Reaman DATE: February 18, 2004 COPIES TO: County Board Office County Clerk News Media/Notice Board Committee Members AG & EXTENSION /RESOURCE & EDUCATION /PLANNING COMMITTEE Tuesday, March 2, 2003 Ag Services & Education Center, Baldwin Convened: 9:00 a.m. Adjourned: 10:40 a.m. Present: Leon Berenschot, Ronald Raymond, Art Jensen, Chris Bethke, Lois Burn, Lee Milligan, James Janke, Kimberly Reaman, Jon Behling, and Mary Lestrud. The meeting was called to order by Chairman Chris Bethke at 9:00 a.m. Date of next meeting was set for Tuesday, April 6 at 9:00 a.m. Lois Burn moved that the agenda be adopted as presented. Ron Raymond seconded the motion. Motion carried. Leon Berenschot moved that the previous meeting's minutes be approved. Ron seconded the motion. Motion carried. Ron moved that the vouchers be approved. Lois seconded the motion. Motion carried. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT Plaque Presentation – On behalf of the St. Croix County Resource and Education Committee, Reaman presented a plaque to Chris Bethke in appreciation of his leadership and support to the committee. Federal Budget Update —No report. State Budget Update— No report. County Budget —No report. WACEC Update - The committee, which is planning the state WACEC conference, will meet on the morning of March 15 in Altoona. Leon Berenschot and Mary Lestrud will attend. Committee members should hold the dates of June 6 -8 for the convention. Performance Review of Agents (Closed session –19.85 (1(C)) – Moved by Jensen, seconded by Raymond at 10:15 am to move into closed session for the purpose of Performance Reviews of Agents. Roll call vote: Bethke – yes; Jensen – yes; Burri – yes; Raymond – yes; Berenschot – yes. Chris moved and Leon seconded to come out of closed session. 4 -11 YOUTH DEVELOPMENT AGENT'S REPORT Pork Quality Assurance Training – Beginning with this year the Pork Quality Assurance Training will be required annually by the swine project members. There are three age levels for training. There will also be a new option to test out of the middle and advanced age levels if the member gets a "C" on the test. Reaman is working with the High School Ag Instructors to garner their support in offering the test to members during the school year. 1 Photography Workshops — Two workshops were offered for members and parents with participation of 25 -30 individuals in each. Calf in the Classroom — Our participation as a pilot with the Calf in the Classroom program with three 2 nd grade classrooms at Willow River Elementary School in Hudson has been confirmed. Jon -De Farm/Julimar Dairy in Baldwin is the cooperating farm. We are just waiting for a female calf to be born. Reaman will be contacting a couple of organizations to work with the school in a support role. Summer Assistant Interviews — The interviews are scheduled for March 12, 9:30 am to 12:30 pm at the Ag Services and Educational Center in Baldwin. There is a strong pool of candidates, all with 10+ years of 4 -H experience and a range of ages, freshmen to seniors. Five candidates will be interviewed. The interviews will consist of a written assignment and a personal interview with each candidate. Raymond and Jensen agreed to participate in the interviews. Reaman will also solicit a 4 -H volunteer to participate. RESOURCE AGENT'S REPORT Janke indicated that he has helped the Town of Troy to find a student intern for their park planning. The next comprehensive planning workshop is March 24 and will focus on implementation tools. Small business counseling was held in February with 5 clients. Planning is underway for the four drinking water programs this spring. County Board Chairman Malick has asked Janke to organize an orientation to county government workshop for new supervisors. It has been scheduled for April 12. AGRICULTURE AGENT'S REPORT Nineteen crop producers and agronomists participated in the Soybean Aphid workshop via distance education. Over 800 people participated in eight states. Participants reported learning pest management options for soybean aphids, impact of aphids on soybeans, and noted changes they would make in their soybean aphid management program. Milligan delivered a BSE Update presentation at a dairy marketing meeting hosted by a local bank. Building a Vision workshop was presented to eleven dairy producers and ag lenders. The remaining workshops in the series will be held in late March and early April. A Grain Marketing workshop is being piloted by Milligan and Greg Andrews, Pierce County ag agent. They selected four crop producers to provide feedback on the series. It is a successful program. Slight modifications will be made and the workshop will be marketed in St. Croix and Pierce counties through ag lenders. Thirty-eight people have participated in the 2004 Pesticide Applicator Training sessions to date. The final session will be March 5. Personal contacts have included the topics of farm financial management and analysis, farm business arrangements, long range plans, farm building design, dairy and beef nutrition, raising dairy replacements, estate planning and milk pasteurization. 2 In March Milligan will continue with the Pesticide Applicator Training, Building A Vision, Heart of the Farm for Women, and Alfalfa Management workshops and seminars. FAMILY LIVING AGENT'S REPORT Mary discussed the elementary school mentoring program, which she helped start at Greenfield Elementary School 8 years ago with a federal grant. The program is still helping youth, with 39 current adult mentors befriending children through a once -a -week lunchtime contact. Many people from the UW Extension Office and the Land and Water Office are mentors. The Baldwin and Woodville newspapers recently did front page stories on the program. Mary spent 6 hours working with the Family Resource Center on strategic planning issues during the past month. Dave Trechter from UW River Falls facilitated the process, which allowed the board to develop long -range financial and program outreach goals. The Nutrition Education Program focus for the next two months is Walk, Dance and Play, Be Active Every Day. UW Extension designed materials to help young families focus on helping their young children get enough daily exercise. This effort is done once a year to try to promote better physical health and combat obesity among children and families. WIC clients will be the primary focus for this effort. Mary presented outcomes from two jail programs, Money for Food and Kid Connection. Money for Food is a 4 -week quarterly program which the nutrition educator provides to help inmates develop knowledge about their diet including fast food, food safety, satisfying needs before wants, managing credit, and nutrition. Mary just finished her third jail 6 -week series, Kid Connection: A Parent -Child Book Sharing Program, in which inmates read aloud to their absent children on videotape and compiled a class book for their families including letters and poetry about their hopes and dreams for their kids and their future as a family. HORTICULTURE AGENT'S REPORT In January I attended the Wisconsin Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Conference in Oconomowoc, WI. I also attended the UW- Extension Horticulture Team meeting in Hancock WI. We established a new working group at that time that will focus on developing and educating the Fresh Market Fruit and Vegetable producers in the state. In December the Western WI UW- Extension Horticulture agents took on a small project with Channel 13 out of Eau Claire. We will rotate presentations amongst the group to increase the awareness of the Extension service in Western WI. My first presentation focused on All America Selections for 2004 in the flower and vegetable garden and a small piece on disease resistant vegetable varieties. My first commercial class is wrapping up. We have a total of 26 individuals enrolled. The topics covered have included: Business plans, marketing issues, taxation, finance, business structure, soil fertility, weed science, integrated pest management, managing cover crops, county zoning, disease and insect pests of horticultural crops, varietal selection for small fruits, vegetables and flowers.... the final class is on tool and equipment purchasing and care. Other classes that I am organizing are: 1) Cooperating with Kerry Ingraham (Eau Claire Co. Horticulturalist) to develop a short workshop on Integrated Pest Management techniques for the most common insects of vegetable crops for the Hmong Community and 2) Continuing to work with 3 Western Region Agents to develop a short course that would provide information to part time staff from the retail green industry (namely bedding plant and short term nursery sales). This course would cover the basics of pest management, fertilization practices, marketing and general plant healthcare and, 3) In April I will be offering a class through community development on organic gardening techniques and perennial gardens. In late January I organized the first meeting of Western WI Farm Market Managers and Vendors. This meeting was well attended and there was enough interest to continue to meet throughout the year. The next scheduled meeting is for early May when we will be speaking about Rules and Regulations for the market, insurance needs and liability. There is interest from the West CAP (Western WI Community Action Program) to promote Farmer's Markets in Western WI. I have met with this group twice and we are presently writing 2 grants to submit to USDA and Kellogg's, both are Food Security Grants and are due mid April. We will be focusing on developing the Fresh Market Farmer's Markets in Western WI, providing educational programming on production techniques, marketing and other related issues surrounding Farmer's Markets. We will also be looking at strengthening the tie between the WIC and Senior programs as well as food pantries in our region. I continue to work with Western Region Agents to develop a short course that would provide information to part time staff from the retail green industry (namely bedding plant and short term nursery sales). This course would cover the basics of pest management, fertilization practices, marketing and general plant healthcare. I met with John Borup at the county healthcare facility in February to discuss the Community Gardens and fencing issues. He assured us of continued space for this program and would look into the possibility of our group acquiring one or two of the sheds from the Pheasant Rearing Program that is disbanding. The volunteers for the community garden project/Share the Bounty met again on March 1 st and we will continue to meet every 2 -3 weeks throughout the spring season to establish priorities regarding working the soil, planting, plot maintenance, plots for the public and other pertinent issues. Ron moved and Chris seconded to adjourn meeting. Motion carried. Submitted by, Art Jensen Secretary cz 4