Cooperative Extension

America’s farmers and ranchers are a diverse bunch. They span the gamut – from farm families in operation for many generations to new and beginning farmers just getting their agricultural businesses started; from farmers raising commodities for export to farmers engaging in robust domestic and...

Balance sheet, database, ledger, fertilizer. Which of these does not belong? Trick question – they all belong and all are important to a farmer, but sometimes even farmers don’t realize just how important. Farmers face a multitude of challenges every day, but record keeping is usually not the first...

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA's rich science and research portfolio. A man in Arizona threw away an extension cord – and that’s a big deal for some folks who live about 100 miles west of Tucson...

Kids are headed back to school and so are county Extension agents. As schools continue to teach kids where their food comes from and bring local and regional products into the school cafeteria, one group they may want to partner with on their farm to school activities is their local or regional...

Numerous excellent school garden programs have sprouted up across the country. School gardens often provide food that improves a child’s diet and nutrition, areas for learning, places for pleasure and recreation, as well as a continuing lesson in environmental stewardship and civic pride. But how do...

Earlier this summer, I had the opportunity to participate in the National Congress of American Indian’s (NCAI) mid-year meeting in Reno, Nevada. The NCAI meeting was a warm and familiar place for me, as I recently left a position as NCAI’s Director of Economic Development to assume my current...

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA’s rich science and research portfolio. Some say careers in agriculture are a thing of the past, but don’t tell that to Krish Jayachandran, a professor and co...

All universities engage in research and teaching, but the nation’s more than 100 land-grant colleges and universities, have a third critical mission—extension. “Extension” means “reaching out,” and—along with teaching and research—land-grant institutions extend their resources, solving public needs...

They say that variety is the spice of life. Well, you can’t get much more variety than in the plant world. Genetic variation exists for many traits in all crops. For example, although most carrots on grocers’ shelves are orange, carrots can also be white, yellow, green, or purple. Most potatoes are...