WINTER 2000

In this issue • Families find strength in grant-funded program • Task force takes on youth and family issues • Des Moines Initiative offers new learning opportunities • Fight fire with fire -- for better firefighter training • Journey into new agriculture ventures • CIRAS works on quality control in agriculture • "Speaking of skin cancer" -- A cooperative success • Conferences examine transitions in agriculture • Dairy laboratory is "center of excellence" __________   The Extension Connection Winter 2000 homepage __________ Previous issues Fall 1999 Summer 1999 Spring 1999 Winter 1999 Fall 1998 __________ ISU Extension homepage

Journey into new agriculture ventures Jim Blankman and Chuck Ehlers have a dream &emdash; to fill local markets with fresh, locally-grown walleye filets. They shared that dream and details of Loess Hills Aquaculture, their Manning business, during a stop of the Iowa State University Extension value-added agriculture caravan in September. Mary and Tom Cory's Country Lamb business, in rural Elkhart, provides fresh lamb to local buyers and is expanding into leather products. Caravan participants received a value-added inspiration through Tom's enthusiastic business story and his shared product samples. Tom and Mary Cory's Country Lamb business, Elkhart, was a stop during the ISU Extension value-added agriculture caravan. Larry Zimmerman, vice president of member services for Nebraska Farm Bureau, gathered information all along the three-day caravan. He is sharing this new understanding of value-added agriculture with his state's legislature, Farm Bureau, extension and economic development groups as they begin to develop a value-added agriculture support system. Caravan traveler Eddie Peterson's new knowledge of value-added agriculture will be put to work on his Harcourt farm and in his position as Webster County supervisor. His co-traveler Bob Busch has searched out ideas that can be adapted to his Waverly farmstead. In the early 1900s, ISU Extension used trains -- sometimes called "corn trains" -- to travel the state, delivering education and research from the university to the people. This caravan was a new twist to the old extension train idea &emdash; taking the people to the places where a new agricultural movement is happening. It was a celebration of Extension 21 value-added agriculture projects, efforts supported by extension partners and efforts of individual farm families. The result, say participants, has been increased media coverage, more inquiries by local producers, in general more interest in their businesses and more Midwesterners thinking creatively about ways to adapt current value-added agriculture ventures into their own piece of the agricultural picture.