If a farmer ever needed a reason to buy a computer for the
farm, he’ll get it at Ag
Showcase ’96. Practical uses, networks and gee-whiz ideas will
show off the technology
changing the future of farming.
The Showcase is Saturday, June 29, at the Rural Development
Center in Tifton. It starts
at 9 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m. And it features the latest from
Georgia agricultural
colleges.
The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences cosponsors
the showcase with Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and Fort
Valley State College.
The event showcases the work of Georgia Extension Service
specialists and agents and
Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station researchers. It brings
academic and research
advances to the heart of Georgia farming.
Many displays will use computers to explain their messages.
One will show how programs
predict crop yields. Others will detail software that supports
farmers.
Two new CDs will be on display. One includes 200 full-color
pictures of forest insects
and damage. The other is the Extension Service’s ‘Pest Control
Handbook.’
“We’ll show
how to get the Extension CDs and use them,” said Don Hamilton,
an Extension Service computer specialist.
Hamilton will show how farmers can use the World Wide Web,
too. He’ll show how they can find
the Extension Service Web page.
“Our World Wide Web site has been accessed 50,000 times
since last June,”
Hamilton said. “It’s averaging around 4,500 times a
week.”
The site has farm publications and news stories, names and
phone numbers of county
agents and specialists, and much more.
Ever see a GSAMS classroom? You can at the showcase. The
(Georgia Statewide Academic
and Medical System) classroom offers two-way voice and video
links among up to seven
sites.
“This technology carries graphics, charts, photos and
video,” said Bob Molleur, an Extension Service visual
communications specialist.
“It’s a way
of teaching in several remote sites at once.”
GSAMS has 300 such classrooms in schools, libraries and state
agencies. It has 59 in
hospitals linked to the Medical College of Georgia. In the first
three months this year,
GSAMS carried 325 conferences in 900 sites.
