Daily News Update, Jan. 15, 2008

Small acreage landowner webcourses available

Owners of small farms and ranches will soon have access to Web-based help for managing their land.
 

Three online courses designed for agricultural novices will be offered by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, beginning Jan. 22, said Rebecca Parker, AgriLife Extension's Dallas-based regional director of programs in agriculture and natural science.
 

The courses were organized to meet the demand for information from the growing group of small-acreage landowners, said Parker, who cited the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2002 census of agriculture.
 

The number of Texas farms with 10 to 49 acres grew by 13 percent between 1997 and 2002, according to the census. By comparison, the number of farms with 2,000 acres or more remained about the same.
 

The new landowners are often city dwellers who buy rural property for retirement, an alternative source of income or a lifestyle change, Parker said. Unlike traditional farmers and ranchers, the landowners typically have jobs that provide primary sources of income.
 

"They don't have an ag background, and they don't know how to decide what to do with their land," Parker said. "There's a whole group that we're not getting to because they don't have time for face-to-face educational programs."
 

The course subjects were chosen based on the demand from landowners for information about those particular topics, Parker said.
 

The courses cost $50 each. They are offered on the following dates, with repeats of each course in case you missed one:
 

• Resource Inventory Course – Jan. 22 to Feb. 22

• Basic Beef Cattle Management – Jan. 28 to March 7

• Introduction to Pasture Management – Jan. 30 to Feb. 29

• Resource Inventory Course – March 3 to March 31

• Introduction to Pasture Management – March 12 to April 18

• Resource Inventory Course – April 21 to May 19

• Introduction to Pasture Management – May 7 to June 11

• Resource Inventory Course – June 2 to June 30

• Basic Beef Cattle Management – July 14 to August 22

Landowners should take the Resource Inventory course first, Parker said.

"It answers the question, 'I've got this land, now what do I do with it?' " she said. "We consider that the most important course."

For more information, visit the Small Acreage Landowner Webcourse Web site at
 http://grovesite.com/TAMU/RI .
 

AgriLife Extension plans to expand the course offerings to include horse production and rainwater harvesting, Parker said.