The Cooperative Extension Service offers a host of educational programs and services.
If you do not see what you are looking for below, please contact our county Extension
Office for assistance.
Calhoun County Family & Consumer Sciences
With an increasingly growing elderly population in Calhoun County, most are retired
and living on reduced income. Statistics show that as people age they are faced with
more health related problems. Many of these problems are being aggravated by poor
diets.
Monthly SNAP classes were conducted at two Senior Nutrition sites in Calhoun County.
The curriculum used for the classes were Chef Charles. The curriculum focused on health
issues that many elderly people are facing. Issues such as low potassium and the foods
that could be included in the diet to increase potassium intake. All lessons addressed
the importance of daily physical activities and food safety.
Participants at the center are willing to participate in these classes which often
include physical activity. Evaluations are conducted orally which are pre- and post
questions, 98% of participants are able to answer questions at the end of lesson.
Each person receives a newsletter that is used as reinforcement to information learned
from the lesson. Many state that walking or gardening is their daily form of physical
activity. Contact Laura Trotter CEA- Family & Consumer Sciences for more information
on the above programs.
Photo: Senior Citizens eating lunch at nutrition center and getting ready to listen
to Chef Charles program.
Extension Homemakers Make Preemie Crochet Caps
The Calhoun County Extension Homemakers are making preemie crochet caps to donate
to Arkansas Children's Hospital. This is an on going project that the ladies decided
to dedicate their time and resources too. The Needle Art EH club has been the leading
club in this project. The chair of this project is very active in teaching other
members how to make caps. The preemie caps are made using a small round loom and
baby sport yarn which is very soft. Way to go ladies for sharing your talent! Contact
Laura Trotter CEA-Family & Consumer Sciences for more information on following programs
like this.
Photo: The Preemie Crochet Cap project chair shows off one of her crochet caps made
at workshop.
Commercial Agriculture
Feral hogs have become a million dollar burden on agriculture producers due to their
destructive nature. Their habitual feeding characteristics and rapid rate of population
expansion warrants cause for concern in feral hog control and management educational
programs across Arkansas and for producers of various agricultural commodities.
The Calhoun County Extension Service conducted a 3-year program designed to test the
effectiveness of different baits utilized in feral hog trapping. Baits utilized in
the 2014 trapping sequence were: field corn, all-purpose feed pellets and sweet feed
pellets. Trapping stations were checked continually for three weeks and monitored by
constant surveillance utilizing a Moultrie digital game camera. Monitoring was used
to measure a.) undesirable species usage of bait stations and b.) monitoring of feral
hogs utilizing bait stations that were not trapped during demonstration duration.
In 2014, the trapping demonstration yielded the capture of 4 hogs. Feral hog bait
preferences favored sweet feed over other bait types. Harvested hogs were field dressed
and meat was donated to the Hunters Feeding the Hungry program yielding ~ 12 pounds
of ground hog meat donated to local churches via the CES (~$45.00). Results from
the trapping demonstration were presented at three meetings and one newsletter. Of
the regimes and ration feeding amounts resulting in a savings of ~$5.10 per producer
per week of baiting and trapping (i.e. $688.50 per week saved among all producers).
Contact Jaret Rushing for more information about the above programs and services available.
Photo: Calhoun County demo of feral hogs being caught in trap by Jaret Rushing, County
Extension Agent - Agriculture.
2017 HOGSKIN FORESTRY CONTEST
This year's competition, hosted by the Calhoun County 4-H program, drew 24 schools
from around Arkansas with 157 competitors, well up from the the eight schools and
52 competitors drawn to the first competition in 2011, said Jaret Rushing, Calhoun
County extension staff chair for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
He added that he hopes to see the contest grow to more than 200 contestants in the
years to come. This year's contest was held February 9.
Competitors are tested on their general forestry knowledge and are quizzed on topics
such as tree identification; ability to determine the volume of wood from a tree;
correct identification of forest equipment, knowledge of forest pests and disorders
as well as map interpretation, among other things.
Sponsors included: Arkansas Forestry Association, Farm Credit Services of Western
Arkansas, Arkansas Farm Bureau of Calhoun County, Calhoun County Cattlemen's Association,
DM Apparel, Arkansas Forestry Commission, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Calhoun
County employees and Calhoun County Judge Floyd Nutt, Calhoun County Fair Board, Calhoun
Extension Homemakers and local support from other volunteers as well as the support
of the landowners, Michael and Jennifer Beene. A big Thank You goes out to all of
the sponsors. To learn more about programs like this, contact the Calhoun County
Extension office or Jaret Rushing at jrushing@uada.edu.
Photo: Hogskin Forestry contest participants compete in identification of forest pests
and disorders.
