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Devloping an Adult Education Program in Agriculture for the Spiro Community

Brown, Lillard B.
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Abstract

A questionnaire was formulated by the writer and approved by the Department of Agricultural Education. The writer interviewed twenty beef cattlemen, ten dairymen, twenty producers of truck crops, and twenty producers of field crops. Major problems and profitable practices in each enterprise were determined from the survey. This information was tabulated, conclusions were drawn, and an adult education program was planned. There is a continous change in the importance of certain field crops and truck crops in the Spiro area. Of the twenty field crop producers, seventeen grow soybeans with an average of 96.2 acres per farm. Wheat - 11 growers, average acres 96 . 2; alfalfa - 11 growers, average acres 85.4; barley - 7 growers, 48.0 acres; cotton - 4 growers, 46.2 acres; corn - 5 growers, 32.0 acres; oats - 4 growers, 28.8 acres. A large increase has been made in acreage of soybeans and small grain with a decrease in corn and cotton acreage. Of the twenty truck crop producers seventeen grow green beans with an average of 31.5 acres per farm. Spinach - 15 growers, 93.3 acres; cowpeas - 11 growers, 73.6 acres; sweet corn - 7 growers, 50.0 acres; mustard greens - 4 growers, 45 .0 acres; turnip greens - 4 growers, 37.5 acres; Irish potatoes - 4 growers, 5.5 acres. The major problems with truck crops are control of diseases and insects and getting a higher quality product to market earlier. On the beef cattle survey, 17 percent have Hereford cattle, but only 4 percent are purebred. Fifty percent have cows calving in the spring, while 35 percent prefer winter calving. The trend is toward winter calving. In the dairy survey a fairly high degree of efficient management was observed. Milk production per cow is increasing. Feed costs and diseases seem to be the major problems.

Date
1954-08-01
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