April 28 is the 4-H National Day of Service. Last year, 4-H groups in the Panhandle Extension District organized Dollars for Doughnuts to help raise funds for families affected by the Ash Hollow Fires. This year, Panhandle 4-Hers are focusing on Finders Keepers, a Panhandle-based children’s outreach organization that specializes in providing essentials to children and families in need, which often include families involved in foster care.
Nebraska Extension’s Tractor Safety & Hazardous Occupations Courses will be offered at Gering and Gordon in June 2018, as well as and 10 other Nebraska locations this year for teens 14 or 15 years of age who will work on a farm.
Federal law prohibits youth under 16 years old from using certain equipment on a farm unless parents or legal guardians own the farm. Certification received through a course provided by Nebraska Extension grants an exemption to the law, allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to drive a tractor and work with certain mechanized equipment.
Scotts Bluff County 4-H is holding a Stop the Bleed presentation on Sunday, April 8, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. in the Bluestem Room at the Panhandle Research & Extension Center. All 4-H members and families and the general public are welcome to attend!
This program will be presented by Regional West Medical Center Trauma Services, and is part of a nationwide campaign to train citizens to stop life threatening bleeds - the leading cause of preventable death from trauma. A person who is injured and bleeding can die from blood loss within five minutes. This seminar will teach the basic tools to help anyone keep an injured person alive until medical care is available.
Please RSVP the number of persons planning to attend to 308-632-1480.
A special celebration of the legacy and future of 4-H is planned for April 14, 2018 at the Legacy of the Plains Museum west of Gering.
This free event will last from 2-5 p.m. at the museum and will feature the 4-H program’s strong ties to our Nebraska past, as well its bright future in rural and urban areas, especially in the Panhandle.
Hands-on activities and information of interest to both members and non-members will be featured, according to Jana Schwartz, 4-H assistant for Nebraska Extension in Scotts Bluff County. Platte Valley Companies is supporting the event as a sponsor.
By: Jessica Groskopf and Jim Jansen, Extension Educators
Preliminary results from the Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Survey released by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln revealed that Nebraska Panhandle agricultural land declined in value for the reporting year ending Feb. 1, 2018.
The average farmland value in the region is estimated to be $720 per acre. This is 5 percent lower than the prior year. This is the fourth consecutive year of market value decline.
The eight major types of land reported in the survey declined in value from 2017-18 across the state. In the Panhandle, gravity irrigated cropland saw the largest declines in value, dropping 8 percent. These losses however, were less than those experienced from 2016-17.
A Nebraska 4-H Shooting Sports Leader Certification Workshop is scheduled for April this spring. It will be held April 21-22, 2018 at the Panhandle Research & Extension Center in Scottsbluff. The early bird registration deadline is April 11th.
