Feb. 12, 2007 Extension Update
Dear Extension Faculty and Staff:
We are at about the midpoint of the legislative session and there continues to be a lot of interest in NMSU/Extension bills. This week three 4-H bills will go before committees. One concerns $75,000 for expenditure in 2008 to support a joint 4-H program between the university and Las Vegas city public schools involving science, technology, engineering and math. The other two are requesting monies for expanding 4-H outreach programs. Monday night and Tuesday morning I will be attending the U-wide Extension Agent Tour on campus. The rest of the week I'll be back in Santa Fe. Bea (646-3015) can reach me if you need to get a hold of me.
On Wed. evening this week the executive committee of the Extension/Research Support Council will be meeting with district directors, respective county directors, AES administration to help plan the agenda and dates for upcoming spring (and into summer) town hall meetings throughout the state. These town hall meeting will replace the annual support council meeting in Las Cruces-the idea being to meet with out constituents in their counties. The executive committee will also be meeting with legislators Thursday to advocate for various Extension bills. The end of their visit to Santa Fe culminates in attendance at Thurs. night's Ag Fest. Bernd Leinauer will also be attending that evening with a booth showing casing recent extension and research turf grass projects.
The U-wide Extension Agent Tour I mentioned above has seventeen agents attending. The agenda includes getting acquainted with CAHE's new food processing lab, the College of Education's aerospace education lab, and a tour of the College of Engineering's M-TEC mechanization lab. Hopefully, agents will leave with the names, faces, and identified expertise of various faculty in other colleges that can help to address clientele concerns in communities. Expenses for agents are being covered by my office.
I am pleased and interested in learning about the results of a forthcoming (Feb 22) meeting Roberta Rios has planned in the Northern District. The meeting is planned to build and strengthen 4-H youth development work on the Southern and Northern Indian Pueblos by coordinating program efforts among RAIPAP Outreach Agents, the tribal extension initiative, and County Extension 4-H Agents. This area of work can extend our reach in several exciting directions.
Other events around the state include the recent and forthcoming Range Monitoring Workshops. These are a series of district-wide in-service trainings. The northern district met with faculty from the Extension Animal Sciences and Natural Resources Department on January 26. The Southwest and Eastern districts met on February 9 and will meet again on Feb 20. Chris Allison teaches range management principles and stocking rate determination. Clay Mathis and Manny Encinias deal with cattle nutrition and management including field exercises in determining cattle body condition scoring. Our newer Extension veterinarian, John Wenzel instructs in the common domestic livestock diseases and animal care. Agents are also providing feed back on training needs at these sessions.
As I continue these updates, I hope you find them informative. If you know of faculty, staff or programs that I should highlight/recognize in these briefs, feel free to drop me a line.
Paul