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production.
Investigation of new varieties is being pursued to
identify those best suited to the region. Corn produced in association in an established perennial peanut stands produced 5 times more forage than corn alone. However, corn grains production was reduced 1.1/2 to 3 times when grown in )association.
Information Studies: it became evident during th'e first year's activities with clientele that certain problems existed regarding how information is obtained and understood by them. Certain of these difficulties related to the educational levels o! :l'*:!e families; many clientele expressed confusion over how to interpret soil tests and similar technical documents; pamphlets produced by IFAS contained so many facts that clientele expressed difficulties in determining which ones were most significant. Extension sources were typically underutilized as contrasted to larger scale farm households and hobby farmers.
Beginning in 1982, the FSR/E team developed multi-media presentations designed to express information in as many ways as possible: visual, audio, graphs, etc. Dr. Swisher initiated programs and began to write articles for the local papers. Wheat findings have been printed in the popular Florida Grower and Rancher magazine. Beginning in 1984, Dr. Swisher developed a newsletter directed specifically to the clientele which discusses management strategies. Studies are planned over the next 3 years measuring the influence that various information transfer strategies have on the clientele, including the following: development of slide modules, displays at the county fair and other community gatherings, newsletters left at churches, post offices, feed and retail stores, and the like, radio shows, and of course, direct farm household contact.
Expected to help these studies are the data being collected presently by the students from Florida State University.
Cattle Management: while controlled grazing was
recognized as a problem by the team during the first year, the generality of the problem for the region was determined only recently. An agricultural engineer from ICRISAT is presently helping the team develop a solar-battery operated, pasture gate control mechanism which is being tested on farm.