April is National Financial Literacy Month. Take a step to survey your financial situation and skills by following this Financial Challenge Calendar:
Did you know April is also NC Poultry Month???Chickens can be a colorful, beautiful, entertaining addition to your garden, and a few hens in your backyard can supply all the eggs your family needs, along with litter (manure mixed with bedding) that can be used as a source of organic fertilizer. Your hens will supplement their diet with bugs and grubs, and they can turn your garden and kitchen waste into tasty eggs. Are you now interested in raising your own
backyard flock?? We have the perfect resource link to help you get started. See more information...
Summer Annuals for Grazing
Annual forages can offer great benefits to beef cattle operations. Both cool and warm season annual forages can fill in those gaps in your permanent grazing system. Warm season annuals particularly, will perform well in the summer months when fescue does not. Start with a small field that you can easily rotate your cattle on and off. Then consider planting a winter annual in the fall! This will not only increase your grazing days but also increase animal performance.
In North Carolina, cool-season grasses produce ample forage in the spring and fall, but high temperatures and short-term drought stress often limit growth during the summer months. Therefore, there is a need for additional grazing, hay or green-chop during July and August. Summer annual grasses can fill this gap with relatively high quality forage when properly managed. Advantages to using summer annual grasses include fast germination and emergence, rapid growth, high productivity, and flexibility of utilization. Warm-season grasses can be grazed as needed and excess growth can be harvested as hay or
silage.
Summer annual grasses that can be grown in North Carolina include sudangrass (Sorghum bicolor), forage sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), sorghum x sudangrass hybrids, pearl millet (Pennisetum americanum), foxtail millet (Setaria italica), and crabgrass (Digitaria species). There are some new BMR (brown mid-rib) sorghum/sudan varieties available that offer high quality due to the reduced lignon in the plant. Lignon reduces the digestibility of the plant thereby reducing the nutritional value. Thus BMR forage has higher feed value and forage palatability for livestock offering higher daily gains on stockers
in a Texas A&M study.
Planting crabgrass may sound odd but it is quickly gaining in popularity. It is a survivor during those hot summer months and cattle love it. It is a serious contender for summer annual grazing!
Alexander 4-H Update
Are you looking for something for your child to do during the summer while school is out? GREAT.....we have a great summer program schedule lined up that is not just educational, but FUN!! Alexander 4-H has also been super busy in the schools with the Embryology program and after-school. Go to the following link to view the newsletter: April 2023 Newsletter
4-H Mini Garden Project for Kids
The N.C. Cooperative Extension-Alexander County Center is looking to engage youth in a garden program. Students will be provided seeds and information material to start their own little garden. This will encourage them to learn about how to grow vegetables. Participants will be asked to share pictures throughout the year on social media. A contest will be held once gardens are producing by having judges come out and look at the gardens. Ages 8-under, 9-12 years and 13-18 years will be judged. Date for judging will be sent out closer to date, but will be in June or July.
Prizes will also be given to those who have the best project books.
Kits are limited to the first 25 families to register, but we will also be taking a waiting list for those who are interested. Registration will be open until full, kits will be available April 10th and can be picked up through May 1st. For additional questions, please contact DJ Salyer at
dj_salyer@ncsu.edu. Use the following link to fill out registration: Alexander County 4-H Mini Garden Registration
Green Thumb Gazette Newsletter
The April Edition is now available. For more information on April and May's garden tasks and what to be on the look out for click the link below. This months newsletter also includes upcoming events along with several horticulture educational topics. If you find this newsletter helpful and you would like to receive it each month contact Cari Mitchell atcari_mitchell@ncsu.edu to be added to the mailing
list.
The Alexander County Farmers market will be starting back on April 15th in the Alexander County Services building parking lot. We will be open on Saturdays from 8am-12pm with goodies from all your favorite vendors!
JB’s Rolling Bistro will be there on the 15th to serve you
breakfast while you shop! We are hoping to book a coffee vendor as well!Plan to stop by and support your local vendors on April 15th! If you are interested in being a farmers market vendor in the Alexander County Farmers Market, please give the office a call at 828-632-4451. We always look forward to adding new vendors who either hand make, bake, or grow their own products!
Alexander County offices will be closed Friday, April 7 for Good Friday.
NC State University and N.C. A&T State University work in tandem, along with federal, state and local
governments, to form a strategic partnership called N.C. Cooperative Extension.
