You schedule regular maintenance appointments for your vehicle to keep it in top condition. Shouldn’t you take the same care with your health? Receiving regular screenings, such as colonoscopies, immunizations, mammograms, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests and other tests can help you remain healthy for years to come. Routine screenings can help prevent diseases and keep you from getting sick by maintaining your health.

What are health maintenance guidelines?

The guidelines our screenings and exams needed for your particular age and gender.

• For infants and young children, the guidelines focus on physical and mental development, immunizations, nutrition, and safety.

• For children and young adults, the focus is on maintaining or developing healthy lifestyle habits and eliminating high-risk behaviors.

•  For adults, the focus continues to be on eliminating high-risk behaviors; however, screening for chronic and/or life-threatening disease becomes more important.

You will have the opportunity to take advantage of over $1200 in free health care screenings and test from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, March 23. The Connection’s Community Health Fair will be held at Phillip Sharp Middle School. To take advantage of all tests you should fast for eight hours prior to attending. All tests are free to the public and open to anyone who shows up. What a great start to your health maintenance!

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4-H is collaborating with Northern Elementary to allow the 4th graders to attend 4-H Environmental Camp on April 12 and 13 at North Central Camp Ground in Carlisle, Ky. However, with any overnight field trip there are expenses and fees to pay for lodging, food, and programs. Edwardo’s Pizza and Subs has agreed to host a fundraiser buffet from 6–8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 13 in which 10% of the profits and all waitress tips will go towards a fund to help lower the cost for the Northern Elementary 4th graders to attend the camp.

Environmental Camp allows kids to rotate through 5-8 classes that are taught by environmental camp interns, UK specialists, teachers, and other outside instructors. Some of the potential topics they will learn about are:

birds and insects

create paper rockets to shoot off with a rocket launcher

furs and animal hides

team building and low ropes activities

bee keeping

reptile program from the KY Reptile Zoo.

retired archaeologist from the Daniel Boone Forest

Besides the educational portion of the camp, the kids will also get to be a part of the evening hike, campfire and make S'mores.  Unfortunately, many kids never have the opportunity to have a camping experience. This certainly allows them that chance and the excitement of staying overnight in cabins and learning about nature and its amazing environmental components.

Dine in or order out from Edwardo’s Pizza & Subs on Wednesday, March 13th  to enjoy a delicious meal and help support 4-H in sending 88 fourth graders from Northern Elementary to Environmental Camp.

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Lindie Huffman, Agriculture and Natural Resources

Insecticide-impregnated ear tags are a popular means to control pasture flies (especially horn fly). Tags are inserted in late spring or early summer, and the fly control program travels with the animal. However, using tags containing the same class of active ingredient for several consecutive seasons can select for populations of the horn fly that are resistant to a whole class of related insecticides. This shows up in the form of a shorter than normal period of fly control, but lab testing would be needed to confirm resistance.
To cloud the issue more, other things could cause reduced fly control. Some examples:

The 12- to 15-week "fly control clock" starts when tags are inserted. Hanging them too early in the spring can mean protection "runs out" before fly season is over.

Horn flies moving in from untreated nearby herds can keep pressure high and make control seem less effective.

While you can’t control severe weather, you do have control over how prepared you are to face the challenges severe weather often presents. Preparing ahead of time for severe weather will relieve the stress of uncertainty in an emergency situation.

Gov. Steve Beshear has declared March Severe Weather Awareness Month, and one of the most important things you can do to prepare for severe weather is to own an National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather radio with specific area message encoding capabilities. An NOAA weather radio with SAME technology can be programmed to give weather alerts specific to where you live. This radio is particularly important to the growing population of people who only watch cable television or spend their time on the Internet as these services often do not cover local weather alerts.

In addition to owning a weather radio with extra batteries, you need to create an emergency supply kit with enough necessities to last a minimum of three days.  It is often a good idea to put two kits together, one to remain in your home and a smaller version to take with you in case of evacuation.

The Kentucky 4-H Foundation is asking farmers across the Commonwealth to step-up and make the “Ag Tag” donation.

Beginning in 2012, Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer announced all farm license plate donations will be split evenly among 4-H, FFA and the Kentucky Proud program, which are vital programs for Kentucky’s youth and Kentucky’s agricultural economy.

In March, farmers can make a voluntary donation of $10 when renewing their farm license plates at the county clerk’s office. With more than 160,000 farm plates bought or renewed each year in Kentucky, the commissioner’s action could generate up to $1.6 million annually.

“I strongly believe that these programs are worthy of your support,” said Agriculture Commissioner James Comer.  “4-H and FFA helps develop our youth, preparing them for career success, teaching leadership, citizenship, and life-skills that equip them to be our future leaders.”

Sign-up period for the Direct and Counter-Cyclical programs (corn, soybeans and wheat) payments is February 19 through June 1, 2013 for the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) Program.
Crop Acreage reporting required for FSA programs

Acreage reports are required for many Farm Service Agency programs. Acreage reports are needed to maintain eligibility for  Price Support, loans, the Noninsured Crop Assistance Program (NAP), ACRE and the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).

The final date to file crop reports is July 15, 2013 (there are exceptions, please stop or call the The Falmouth Service Center for further details).

NAP crops need to be reported 15 calendar days before the onset of harvest (cutting hay or pasturing cattle, etc.).

Address is The Falmouth Service Center, 814 US Hwy 27 S., Falmouth, KY, 41040. Phone number is (859) 654-3374.

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With wild weather patterns impacting the country in recent years, homeowners nationwide are constantly on the lookout for better ways to prepare their homes to handle tough weather conditions.

Smart homeowners have been taking the weather into consideration when purchasing replacement windows, roofs and trim products that are subjected to extreme weather conditions year after year.

“Realistically, the products on the exterior of a home need to stand up to a wide variety of weather conditions, including high winds, hail, driving rain, and ice and snow accumulation in many parts of the country,” says Mark Clement, co-host of the MyFixitUpLife home improvement radio show. “Starting at the top of the house, it’s important to purchase a roof that is made to withstand these incredible weather scenarios while looking good on non-extreme weather days.”

Join the Arbor Day Foundation in March and receive 10 free trees.

The Arbor Day Foundation is making it easier for everyone to celebrate the arrival of spring through planting trees.

Join the Arbor Day Foundation in March 2013 and receive 10 free white flowering dogwood trees.

“White flowering dogwoods will add beauty to your home throughout the year,” said John Rosenow, founder and chief executive of the Arbor Day Foundation. “Dogwoods are known for their showy spring flowers, scarlet autumn foliage and red berries that attract songbirds during winter.”

The free trees are part of the nonprofit Foundation’s Trees for America campaign. The trees will be shipped postpaid at the right time for planting between March 1 and May 31, with enclosed planting instructions. The six - to 12 - inch trees are guaranteed to grow or they will be replaced free of charge.

Arbor Day Foundation members also receive a subscription to Arbor Day, the Foundation’s bimonthly publication, and The Tree Book, which contains information about tree planting and care.

To become a member of the Foundation and receive the free trees, send a $10 contribution to TEN FREE DOGWOOD TREES, Arbor Day Foundation, 100 Arbor Avenue, Nebraska City, NE 68410, by March 30, 2013. Or join online at arborday.org/march.

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John W. McCauley, Executive Director for the USDA Kentucky Farm Service Agency (FSA) announced that as of February 28, 2013, the Green County FSA office will be officially closed. From this date forward, all FSA program services will be provided by the Taylor County FSA office located at 1105 S. Coumbia Ave., in Campbellsville and the phone number is (270) 465-4651.

Kentucky Farm service Agency received approval from the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to proceed  with the implementation of county office consolidation plan, including five county offices in Kentucky on May 29, 2012.

For more information, contact the Kentucky Farm Service Agency office at (859) 224-7601.

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Governor Steve Beshear today announced the availability of the 2013 On-Farm Energy Efficiency & Production Incentives program through the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund (KADF).

“After a successful 2012 program year with nearly $1.2 million in incentives approved, the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, which I chair, has committed funds from the KADF to continue providing farmers the opportunity to increase farm energy efficiency or renewable energy production,” said Gov. Beshear.  “It is encouraging to see that 140 farm families from 40 counties were able to access the 2012 program for projects, which demonstrates Kentucky’s leadership in farm energy efficiency.”

For 2013, the KADB’s commitment of $1 million leveraged additional funds through the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet to bring the total available funds for 2013 to $1.75 million.

The 2013 On-Farm Energy Efficiency & Production Incentives program provides 50 percent reimbursement of the actual cost of a qualified energy saving or renewable energy project, up to $15,000. Permissible items include, but are not limited to, energy audits, energy efficient farm building components, on-farm energy upgrades and on-farm energy efficiency training.

The KADF On-farm Energy Efficiency & Production Incentives Program is designed to help achieve the goals of Gov. Beshear’s Intelligent Energy Choices for Kentucky’s Future: Kentucky’s 7-Point Energy Strategy and will be part of the effort to meet 18 percent of Kentucky’s energy needs from efficiency improvements by 2025.

For questions about the application process for the KADF On-farm Energy Incentives Program, please contact Bill McCloskey or Angie Justice at 502-564-4627 or govkyagpolicy@ky.gov. The application is also available online at ag-energy.ky.gov.  The deadline for the first round of 2013 applications is April 26 (in hand).

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