The Farming Basics Online Course was created in 2017 in response to an increasing number of specialty crop producers in Alabama. New producers can find support through educational resources, including the Farming Basics Program and peer networking.

The online course is a component of the overarching Alabama Farming Basics project funded by a grant from the USDA Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program. The project’s goal is to provide educational resources, technical training and on-farm support to small producers, beginning farms in under-served communities and military veterans.

The second online course will deliver information regarding the following topics:

• Farm management and marketing
• Soil and soil fertility
• Plant diseases
• Pest management
• Vegetable production
• Fruit production
• Beef management
• Forage management
• Agritourism

When making decisions regarding the need and use of foliar fungicides for corn, it is important to review  the publication “Fungicide Efficacy for Control of Corn Diseases." The 2023 version of Fungicide Efficacy for Control of Corn Diseases has been published to the CPN website and is available here.

This document is updated annually by members of the Corn Disease Working Group, and ratings are based on results from trials conducted across the United States. The publication is made available through the Crop Protection Network (CPN).  CPN also offer many other resources for growers, Extension workers and Ag professionals.  The website can be accessed here.

Contact Ed Sikora for more information.

Avocados have become more popular than ever. They not only take center stage at parties and cook outs, who can resist a guacamole dip?  But lately you can find them in everything from salads and wraps to smoothies. Even fast-food chains have jumped on the avocado wagon, and for cooking you can choose avocado oil, great and healthy to cook with.

Let us take a closer look at avocados, particularly since for a long-time, people have stayed away because they were not considered a very healthy food choice.

Avocados offer nearly 20 vitamins and minerals in every serving, including potassium which helps control blood pressure, lutein an antioxidant that protects eye health, skin and heart health, even lowers the risk of cancer and diabetes.  It also contains folate, which is crucial for cell repair and during pregnancy.

Avocados are a good source of B vitamins, which help you fight off disease and infection. They also give you vitamins C and E.

Avocados are low in sugar and they contain fiber, which we all know helps you feel full longer.

What about the fat content?

"Fats are essential for heart health, for body function, for brain health, but when choosing fats, we do want to be sure that we are choosing the right types of fat. "What counts as the right type of fat? "That would be your unsaturated fats, your monounsaturated and your polyunsaturated fats," says Elizabeth J. Bailey, a Mayo Clinic registered dietitian nutritionist.

Avocados are a good example of high fat content, it is monounsaturated fat, which is the "good" fat Ms. Bailey stated. This type of fat helps lower bad cholesterol, it is best to eat them in moderation. Since avocados have a lot of calories. The recommended serving size is: 1/5 of a medium avocado (or 1 ounce) is 50 calories.

A randomized trial published in Journal of the American Medical Association followed a small group of adults with hypertension over a period of two years and found that replacing a carbohydrate-heavy diet with one rich in monounsaturated fats (the same heart-healthy kind found in olive oil) resulted in lower blood pressure and improved lipid levels.

Store avocados at room temperature, keeping in mind that they can take 4 to 5 days to ripen. To speed up the ripening process, put them in a brown paper bag in your pantry. When the outside skin is black or dark purple and yield to gentle pressure, they are ready to eat or refrigerate. If you know you will only use only half of an avocado do not remove the seed from the half you want to store for the next day, use an airtight lid container.

Always wash them before cutting so there is no chance that dirt and bacteria could be transferred from the knife onto the pulp.

While guacamole is arguably the most popular way to eat avocado, you can also puree and toss with pasta, substitute for butter or oil in your favorite baked good recipes, or my favorite which is to either spread or slice onto sandwiches or on top of chicken/ceviche tostada.

Let the best team win, enjoy the commercials, splurge a little and enjoy a delicious guacamole!

Guacamole recipe:

4 small size ripe avocados
2 roma tomatoes finely chopped
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 or 2 jalapeno peppers deveined, chopped
2 tablespoon of finely chopped Cilantro
½ teaspoon of Salt
½ of teaspoon of Cumin
1 fresh lime

In a large bowl place the scooped avocado pulp and squeeze the lime juice, . Using a pestle or potato masher add the salt, cumin, and do a gentle mash. Mix in tomatoes, onions and cilantro like Pico de Gallo style. Use a large tablespoon to mix it all in thoroughly.

Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour and then serve.

A pond on your property can be an asset–not only as a place to pass time between hunting seasons, but also as a habitat enhancement for wildlife. Year-round benefits include a place to enjoy fishing, the outdoors, and providing a natural water source attraction for wildlife.

Although deer get most of their daily water through the vegetation they consume, they still use water sources such as streams, puddles, and ponds, to obtain their required intake. On the other hand, wild turkeys rely heavily on water sources and remain within close proximity to them. Water sources also provide essential resources for waterfowl feeding, nesting, loafing, and cover.

One way to maximize the attractiveness of your pond for wildlife involves increasing the presence of herbaceous or leafy plants. Promoting grasses and forbs rather than brushy, woody vegetation will provide food sources, nesting, and escape cover. Plus, it offers a buffer for water runoff into the pond. This can improve water quality by filtering excess nutrients and sedimentation from water runoff. This practice also decreases water cloudiness and is more attractive to waterfowl.

Pond owners can manage and encourage beneficial vegetation around your ponds in several ways. Disking every two years, in late fall, deters woody plants and promotes herbaceous plants. These typically have an abundance of seeds providing food for birds. Fire can also be used in place of disking in areas that are not accessible by equipment. Fire and disking also increase the abundance of insects that are an essential food source for developing juvenile turkeys and waterfowl.

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