Recent Articles
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For the past week I’ve been at two amazing conferences—The Southeast Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference and the Georgia Dairy Conference. At both events I met dynamic, industrious, creative producers and people from industry. What was the most impactful for me was the people who, once they found out that Rural Georgia, Growing Stronger is…
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One of my favorite songs is Willie Nelson singing On the Road Again. In case anyone else loves it (and how could you not?), here’s a link: On the Road Again This coming week some colleagues and I from the UGA Rural Georgia, Growing Stronger initiative will be on the road at two major agricultural…
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“Work smarter, not harder!” How many times have you heard that phrase? We all want to work smarter, to do things effectively with no wasted effort. In tough businesses with small margins like farming, working smarter can be a real competitive advantage. To work smarter means to think clearly, make good decisions, and keep learning.…
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Anyone who’s in farming, or anyone in any business for that matter, knows the importance of taking inventory. It’s important to know that you have enough of the things you need to keep the operation running. We know this is important for our business success—but what about our life success? Steph Schmidt, who is a…
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Thanksgiving is this Thursday, and everyone is already bustling around buying groceries for a Thanksgiving feast, getting the house ready for visitors, and generally feeling festive and a bit harried. The frenzy of preparation and the noise of having folks come together can be overwhelming sometimes and lead to holiday stress. There are lots of…
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November 16 is National Rural Health Day, a day when we focus on the needs and strengths of rural healthcare. People in rural areas struggle with a lot of health issues, at higher rates than people who live in cities—heart disease, cancer, unintentional injury, stroke, and chronic respiratory disease. Lots of this is related to…
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One of my favorite quotes is by the author Henry James, who wrote “Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.” It seems to me that people in farming communities really embody this spirit—they are kind, generous,…
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I love it when readers contact me and share ideas or talk about how they manage stress. This week I got a great message from Tonia M. Slater of Sodmasters Turf Farm. I don’t know the organization, so this isn’t an endorsement…but she told me some great things about how she and the other women…
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Well, the Sunbelt Ag Expo is over, and it was an amazing event with blue skies and about 50,000 people passing through the gates. UGA Extension invested so much time and energy there this week, including sharing lots of information through the Rural Georgia Growing Stronger initiative, where we handed out resources on stress management and…
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