Panhandle Extension News

• ServSafe Training for food handlers March 5-6 at Scottsbluff
• Private pesticide applicator training in western NE
• Panhandle Extension staff recognized
• Renewable Energy Workshop: Feb. 21 at Panhandle Center
• Balance between conservation tillage, herbicide-resistant weeds considered
• Dry bean variety trial results on line at CropWatch
• UNL bean plots part of worldwide effort to improve crop
• Lyon recognized by American Society of Agronomy
  
• Nutrition education program looks to build base of clients

Tips for heart health

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and is a major cause of disability. It is also the leading cause of death and among the leading causes for hospitalization in Nebraska and the Panhandle. February is American Heart Month. Your best weapons to fight cardiovascular disease are to know your risks, understand warning signs, and have a healthy diet and lifestyle.

Beef Feedlot Roundtables at Bridgeport, other locations

Beef feedlot managers, owners, employees and supporting industry personnel will learn the latest in feedlot health, nutrition, environment, and economics at the 2012 Beef Feedlot Roundtables Feb. 16 in Bridgeport, and earlier in the week at two other locations.

Panhandle Master Gardener Training Program seeks new crop of volunteers

UNL Extension’s Master Gardener program allows gardening enthusiasts to gain knowledge directly from the experts, while providing service back to the community. UNL Extension will offer Master Gardener training beginning in February for 2012 volunteers. Anyone who is interested in plants and is willing to volunteer is encouraged to participate.

The North Platte River: Surface Water Irrigation Projects and Power Generation

This presentation provides a basic history and information about the North Platte River U.S. Bureau of Reclamation projects – surface irrigation, power generation and other related irrigation and power generation projects – on the North Platte River drainage. By Gary Stone, Extension Educator, Panhandle Research & Extension Center.

• Part 1
• Part 2

Dryland sugarbeets? Intriguing, but no recommendation yet

Three years of research into growing sugarbeets without irrigation has yielded intriguing results. But UNL researchers are not yet ready to recommend beets as a dryland crop for western Nebraska. But the data do suggest that dryland sugarbeets are a potentially viable crop, given deep soils with adequate stored water at planting time and a favorable growing season.

TEAMS work to keep kids involved in school, headed toward college

Maybe it takes a village to raise a child, but it definitely takes a family to help a child earn a high-school diploma. Family support is the idea behind the TEAMS program (for Together Everyone Achieves More Success), designed to improve middle-school and high-school students’ chances of staying in school, graduating, and attending college. About two dozen middle-school students, ninth graders and their families are currently involved in TEAMS in Scotts Bluff County.

Family Fun-Time: Make Cooking a Family Affair

Make 2012 a year filled with family time! Make Cooking a Family Affair is one part of a five part Family Fun-Time series that focuses on how the whole family can be involved and practice healthy habits, while having fun at the same time.

Visiting scientist from India hopes new technique speeds wheat breeding process

Dr. Bikram K. Das will spend the coming year at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center establishing a technique that he hopes will speed up the process of developing new wheat varieties. Das is a scientific officer in the Nuclear Agriculture and Biotechnology Division at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Mumbai, India. While in Scottsbluff, he is working with Dr. Dipak Santra, alternative crops breeding specialist.

Food Questions? Find Answers at food.unl.edu

A single University of Nebraska-Lincoln website now serves as the online portal to a wide variety of information about food from UNL experts.

More Information You Can Use:

• Goal of fund-raising drive: Boosting proso millet breeding program
• Ranch Practicum grant to aid beginning ranchers
• Heart smarts: Cholesterol
• 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans: Food and Food Components to Reduce
• High Plains Ag Lab research asks if dryland fields can also be used for grazing
• Machinery Systems Engineer John Smith retires after 30 years
• Dairy foods help meet a body’s nutritional needs
• Nebraska's Nutrition Education Program
• Will zone till work for sugarbeets in 22-inch rows?
• Beef makes meals tasty, healthy
• Dealing with stress
• Prevent or delay type 2 diabetes with healthy habits
• Families: Eat together, eat better
• Skipping breakfast not a good way to save time or calories
• A resource for water-conserving landscapes

Farmers: Check the CropWatch web site

Answers about crop varieties, fertilizer, irrigation, pest control, harvest, and many other issues are a click or two away on the University of Nebraska’s expanded and reorganized CropWatch web site. Click below to go directly to sugarbeets, dry edible beans, wheat, or potatoes.

• Sugarbeets
• Dry Edible Beans
• Wheat
• Potato Education Guide
• Corn
  

(Follow us on Facebook)

CENTENNIAL STORIES: