Monday, January 17, 2011

Don't Miss A Chance to Hear Daniel Salatin at AGRItunity 2011 Conference


Daniel grew up in the Shenandoah Valley on Polyface Farms, “a farm of many faces” and is the son of author and farmer Joel Salatin. The mission of the farm is: to develop emotionally, economically, environmentally enhancing agricultural enterprises and facilitate their duplication throughout the world. Daniel has spoken at many farm conferences and can relay his experiences working daily on the farm.


Daniel’s keynote address is entitled “Relationship Marketing” and will provide insight into how their farm has developed direct markets such as restaurants, buying clubs, on-site store and retail outlets. He will also present “Salad Bar Beef” during the livestock workshops. This is the term Salatin coined to describe his pasture-finished cattle: fresh daily paddocks and lots of forage species variety. A hard core how-to talk, this one walks the audience though electric fencing, water systems, breeding, movement logistics, forage growth and rest cycles, stockpiling for dormant seasons, and processing.

The AGRItunity Conference and Trade Show will be held at the Sumter County Agricultural Education Center at the Sumter County Fairgrounds in Bushnell, Florida on January 29, 2011. Don’t miss this exciting annual event! In addition to the keynote speech there will be 8 workshops, a large tradeshow, animal and alternative energy exhibits, antique farm equipment and more. Lunch is available for purchase on site from the famous restaurant the Speckled Butterbean. Pre-registration is $10 at http://sumter.ifas.ufl.edu. The cost for the conference is $15 at the door if not pre-registered. For more information call (352) 793-2728 x236 or email sakelly@ufl.edu. AGRItunity is a project of the extension offices in Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Pasco and Sumter counties.



Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Your Help Is Needed To Develop a Good Neighbor Program!

As the rural-urban interface becomes less distinct we would like to know what kind of communication tools you as agricultural producers need to educate your neighbors and the school children in your community about agricultural practices in their community. We can only do this if we know current practices. How do you communicate with your neighbors? Let us know by completing this survey that is being conducted by the University of Florida IFAS Extension in partnership with Florida Farm Bureau. Based on the survey we will be designing a Good Neighbor Program (GNP) that will help people living in urban-rural interface communities understand more about the importance of agricultural practices. We are also asking School Systems to complete a survey asking how they communicate with you. Please share your communication practices with us and we will use them as part of the new Good Neighbor Program. The survey will take 5 to 10 minutes to complete and we will only use your answers after they have been combined with other respondents' answers and will be completely confidential. Thank you for participatinng.

Email Survey Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5B2MPY9



If you have any questions, please call (352) 273-3971, or send an email to FOI@ufl.edu. Thank you for your participation.