Author: srsigmo

A Collaborative Effort

Mark Cathcart

As a 4-H agent I try to figure out how to promote our organization, give back to our communities, and of course, pay for it all. Every now and then an opportunity comes along that can help with each of these goals.  Just such an opportunity came to Union 4-H with the collaboration of “Forged in 4-H” and the Union County Agricultural Fair.

“Forged In 4-H” is a program designed to teach metallurgy and blacksmithing skills in a safe manner, with the use of chemistry, geometry, physics, math, and hands on projects.  This program uses learning techniques that allow students to experience and learn the trade of blacksmithing in a modern and traditional manner.

As an update, Forged in 4-H is now housed in a building located on the Union County Fairgrounds. The use of this building was donated to Union County 4-H for the purpose of teaching blacksmithing, as well as providing a new and interesting exhibit for the Fair. Along with the modern blacksmithing equipment, a new 1800’s style blacksmith shop has been constructed in part of the building.  This allows the teaching of blacksmithing on a completely different aspect and level. In addition to the educational aspect of this project, it will give the opportunity to the patrons of the Union County Agricultural Fair, Union County Farm Show, and other events held here to see how blacksmithing was done then and now. 

Not only will this program be an asset to Union County, but it will also further set Union County 4-H apart from other 4-H programs in the state.  No other county has the equipment to conduct such a program.  It will create a draw for people outside of Union to come to our county, as it is unique to this area of the state. It will afford visitors the opportunity to see demonstrations, by 4-H youth, with modern blacksmithing equipment, as well as how blacksmithing was done 200 years ago in the same building.

Jeff Fellers

Fall is busy time in Extension with local fairs and the State Fair.  I am actively involved in the Union County Agricultural Fair, so that consumes most of my time in October.  This is a time we also get a lot of calls about fall food plots.  This year we also saw the armyworms come and damage many of the early planting for fall food plots. 

Site Visits/Office Visit
You never know what may come through the door at the office or what you might expect to see at a site visit.  Fall and winter are the times when we start seeing the winter annual weeds pop up.  Landowners and homeowner often times bring samples in for identification and management recommendations.  Late summer early fall also is a time where we see a lot of foliar diseases on plants from the warm humid conditions. 

Union County Agricultural
If you have never been to the Union County Agricultural Fair you need to plan a visit next October.  This county fair has everything from rides, feature shows, livestock exhibits, home economics exhibits, and agricultural products exhibit.  Clemson Extension manages the livestock shows, home economics exhibits, agricultural products exhibit, poultry barn exhibits, and livestock exhibits.  Premiums and ribbons are given out to participants that place in the categories.  We put a lot of work in the fair to make sure it is a successful event and promotes agriculture. 

5-K Day at the Fair
5-K day is always a favorite of mine.  All the kindergarten students in the County come to the fair as a field trip for school.  We set up five minutes lessons to teach them about agriculture.  These lessons are set up throughout the barn and the classes rotate through each lesson.  We teach the students about beef cows, dairy cows, goats, horses, chickens, rabbits, bees, and crops.  My job is to teach the kids about crops.  I plant these crops in early May as a demonstration for the fair and to use for this program.  We offer this program every year on Thursday when the fair is in town. 

Newberry Forestry Association
The Newberry Forestry Association hosted meetings in November and February.  In November we had Chris Gordy and Steve Salsbury from West Fraser present a program on mill updates in Newberry County.  They spoke on the sawmill in Newberry and the OSB mill in Joanna.  The February meeting featured Kevin Burkett with Clemson Extension speaking on timber taxes and looking at claiming losses since hurricane Helene had an impact in our County. 

Laurens Forest Landowners Association
The Laurens Forest Landowners Association hosted meetings in November and February.  In November, Jeff Fellers with Clemson Extension presented a program on interpreting soil samples.  The February meeting featured Dr. Adam Kantrovich speaking on timber taxes and loses since Laurens was affected by Helene. 

4-H Shooting Sports Trailer
The 4-H Shooting Sports Trailer has been busy the last few months.  We use the trailer to raise funds for our 4-H Shooting Sports Program.  We have been fortunate to raise enough funds to purchase and maintain our supplies so the participants do not have to pay and extra fee for the clubs.  We hosted trailer at the Union County Agricultural Fair in October.  This is our big event, as we open the trailer every night of the fair.  We also hosted the trailer at the Grand American in Orangeburg and the Southeastern Treeing Walker Days in Union.  Both of these events attract participants from many states and allows us to promote 4-H and our program to many people outside our County.  In Orangeburg, over 25,000 people typically attend.  While the Southeastern Treeing Walker Days is not as big, we still see thousands of participants at that event as well.

Forest Health Workshop
On March 3^rd I hosted a Forest Health Workshop with Dr. David Coyle.  This program was geared toward forestry and natural resource professionals and offer continuing education credits that are required in their field.  Topics include Pesticide regulatory update, Pine insects and diseases, hardwood insects and diseases, market update, herbicide application techniques, and invasive species management. 

2025 Forestry Focus
2025 Forestry Focus is our 20^th biennial program.  This year the program will be hosted on March 15, 2025.  Forestry Focus is hosted by Clemson Extension and the Newberry Forestry Association.  We host this program every odd year.  This is an all-day event that is geared toward landowners and professionals.  We offer continuing education credits in both forestry and pesticides.  This year our topics included Local Market Updates, Estate Planning, Forest Health, Nuisance Wildlife, and Pond Management. 

Upcoming Events:

Newberry Forestry Association – May 13, 2025 – Drew Fasano with Arborgen will presenting on recommendations for spacing on higher end genetics with a focus on reducing pulpwood and maximizing sawtimber.

Laurens Forestry Association – May 27, 2025 – Patrick Hiesl will present on the economics of a portable sawmill for landowners.

Mark Cathcart, Union County 4-H Agent

It’s an exciting time to be a 4-H’er in Union County.  Oftentimes it is difficult for 4-H clubs to find suitable space to hold meetings and do activities.  We are very fortunate in Union to have access to a great meeting room.  Recently that got even better, as the use of an entire building has been donated to Union 4-H. 

Located on the Union County Fairgrounds is a 40’x60’ freestanding building that has not been utilized to is maximum potential for several years. Things would come and go, but nothing seemed to stick.  One of the problems was that no one wanted to tackle the upgrades needed.  As the Union Forged In 4-H program has grown, a larger, more suitable space was needed.  I approached the fair board and asked if they would give the use of the building to 4-H to conduct meetings for Forged In 4-H.  The board agreed and the journey began.

With the space secured, I set out to get 2 grants (the Clemson University Innovation Award, and the Union Community Grant) for the upgrades and a new project.  With help from Union County the improvements began to get the building to a workable state.  After seeing the improvements being made the fair board made an investment in the project by paying for a concrete walkway to be poured in the building. The new project would be another level of Forged In 4-H in the form of an 1850’s style blacksmith shop.  This shop will be used to teach traditional coal forging as well as demonstrations during events held at the fairgrounds for the purpose of promoting 4-H. 

At the time of this newsletter the project is not complete, but we are getting close.  Our goal was to have it up and running for the Union County Farm Show on September 21, 2024, and we did.  When completed an investment of around $25,000 will have been made overall on this endeavor.  It will pay back dividends for many years to come through education, demonstrations, and the preservation of history.

The first Health Extension for Diabetes (HED) cohort in Union County was a community success! The cohort started in September 2023 and graduated in December 2023, with approximately a 90% graduation rate (adjusted)! We are recruiting for a second Health Extension for Diabetes cohort at the Union County Library for HED in-person programing. Registration is open from 02/13/24-03/12/24, please contact me if you are interested in participating!

• HED is a free diabetes support program recognized by the ADA as a practice-tested diabetes support program. The main goal of this program is to help participants better manage diabetes to prevent or delay complications. HED is 4 months long and includes a series of 8 education sessions and intermittent support sessions. Each session is designed to help participants learn more about diabetes and provide them with necessary skills and support to successfully self-manage diabetes. Participants will receive bi-weekly materials and weekly follow-up to help navigate resources and reach healthy lifestyle goals. A Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes diagnosis is required for enrollment.

February is American Heart month; If there is an upcoming event or group meeting that you are looking for a guest speaker and a timely topic, I would love to attend and hold the Know Diabetes by Heart (KDBH) program. Please feel free to contact me if you have any opportunities or questions.

• KDBH is sponsored by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and American Heart Association (AHA). It is a free education session offered in-person or online. The program aims to help participants better understand the link between diabetes and heart disease. By participating in this one-hour session, you will learn more about risks related to diabetes and heart disease, how to take control of your risks, and learn about community and clinical resources.

Julia’s Contact Information:
Office – 864-424-8275
Email – Janewso@clemson.edu

One thing I love about working for Clemson Extension is the diversity of work throughout the seasons.  Rarely do we have the same tasks day after day.  It often changes with the season. The fall and winter seasons bring about fairs and festivals, along with our normal activities.

Union County Agricultural Fair
October is all about the fair in Union County.  The Union County Extension Office is heavily involved in managing the livestock, poultry, agricultural products, and home economics sections.  We also operate the Union County 4-H Shooting Sports Trailer throughout the week of the fair.  On Thursday of the fair, we also host a 5K day where all the Union County public schools bring their kindergarten classes to the fair to learn about livestock and agriculture.  I always enjoy presenting on the crops section for this field trip.  If you have never visited the Union County Agricultural Fair I highly recommend coming by and seeing us.

Kids in the Parks Track Trail
I had the opportunity to lead a trail hike for the Newberry County Recreation Department for their grand opening of the Kids in the Parks Track Trail.  This trail is located at Lynches Woods in Newberry County.  I really enjoyed spending the afternoon with the children and helping them identify some trees and shrubs, along with learning about growth rings on pine trees.  The Newberry County Recreation Department has a nice kiosk with brochures that help educate those who take the hike.

Wood Magic Forest Fair
Wood Magic Forest Fair is a free field trip for fourth graders, hosted by the South Carolina Forestry Commission.  The program provides a learning experience about the forest industry in South Carolina that meet fourth grade school standards.  Volunteers from around the forest industry come together to teach fourth graders all about forestry.  This year I had the opportunity to teach the Gifts of the Forest station at the Harbison State Forest location.  For more information on Wood Magic visit: https://www.scfc.gov/education/wood-magic/.

Learn to Burn
In November, I had the opportunity to assist with a Learn to Burn program in Union County.  This program was hosted by the Piedmont Prescribed Fire Cooperative at a private landowner’s property.  Participants were able to actively participate in a burn on a mature pine stand.  They were able to see the process from planning, preparation, execution, and mop up.  Learn To Burn provides a great educational experience to landowners that are wanting to learn how to implement prescribe fire on their property.

Newberry Forestry Association
The Newberry Forestry Association had their last quarterly meeting in 2023 on November 14.  We met at Mt. Pleasant UMC.  Eddie Reese, with NRCS, presented on forestry cost share programs.  Our next meeting will be February 13, 2024, and our topic will be estate planning.

Laurens Forest Landowners Association
The Laurens Forest Landowners Association had their last quarterly meeting in 2023 on November 28.  We met at the Laurens County Farm Bureau Office.  Chris Gordy, from West Fraser, presented on local and statewide mill updates.  Our next meeting will be February 27, 2024.

Grand American
This was the first year that we took the Union County 4-H Shooting Sports Trailer down to the Grand American in Orangeburg SC.  Along with Forged In 4-H, we set up a display to help raise funds for the two programs.  Just like at the Union County Agricultural Fair, the trailer is set up for participants to have fun shooting air rifles.  For those less experienced shooters, we spend a little extra time helping them learn the basics of shooting.  Forged In 4-H also provided forging demonstrations, while selling some of the items that were made through the program.  The Grand American provided an excellent venue to advertise our program and educate participants about what great programs we have to offer.

4-H Food Plots
One of my favorite activities in this job is judging 4-H Food Plots.  We typically do this in January, so the weather is normally not cooperative.  This year however, we had a very nice day to be out in the woods.  We judged 1 in Newberry County and 2 in Union County.  For more information on the 4-H Food Plot Project visit the following link: https://www.clemson.edu/extension/4h/program-areas/natural-resources/wildlife-food-plot-project.html.

Upcoming Events:

• Woodland Stewards Silvopasture Webinar Series – January 30 through March 5
  https://forestrywebinars.net/sponsor-pages/woodland-stewards
• Newberry Forestry Association Meeting February 12, 2024
• Indian Creek Field Day February 22, 2024
• Laurens Forest Landowners Association Meeting February 27, 2024
• Broad River Watershed Landowner Interest Meeting March 7, 2024
• Spotlight on Ag March 14, 2024

New Year! New Goals! New Clubs! New People!

The new year brings the opportunity to get things back on schedule here in Union County. The Union County Agricultural Fair consumes most of October and Thanksgiving and Christmas family time suspends our regular meeting schedules.  January is a time to get back to the task at hand, positive youth development. With a list of clubs provided by Union 4-H such as Trail Blazers, Shooting Sports (archery/BB gun), Baking Buddies, Poultry, Forged In 4-H, and a new Fishing club, staying involved, engaged, and busy is easy to do. We do our best to provide various types of clubs to reach the interest of as many youths as possible in our county.

Forged In 4-H hit the ground running in 2024! Forged In 4-H is a blacksmithing club that teaches the trade and art of blacksmithing. It is unique to Union, as it is the only program of its kind offered in South Carolina. The club was invited to set up a booth January 4^th and 5^th at the Grand American held in Orangeburg, SC. The Grand American is the largest wild racoon hunt in the southeast and one of the largest in the country. Over a two-day period 10,000-20,000 people will attend this event each year. Contestants come from as far away as South Dakota and Texas. Along with the blacksmithing demonstrations, we took our shooting trailer to promote 4-H Shooting Sports and raise money to support the clubs. 4-H’ers maned the booth, did demonstrations, assisted shooters, and interacted with people to promote 4-H on a national level!

A new thing coming in 2024 is the 4-H Fishing Club. A spinoff of the popularity of 4-H fishing day camp, the fishing club will meet monthly to learn about fishing gear, fishing techniques, safety, natural resources conservation, and many other things. The plan is to also meet at some fisheries to put learned skills into practice and possibly a fieldtrip to a fish hatchery.  Stay tuned to “Union County SC 4-H” Facebook page for future catch pictures.

The Union County Agricultural Fair received an agricultural award from the South Carolina Association of Fairs at the Georgia/SC Fair Association Conference. The award recognized the partnership between Union Chapter of FFA and Union County 4-H in their efforts to establish a rabbit project and show at the Union County Agricultural Fair. Through this partnership FFA/4-H Members and the special needs class at Union County High School were able to show their rabbits that they raised through the project. This has been a great project and demonstrates the things that can be accomplished when organizations work together for a common goal, opportunity, and positive youth development!

Julia Newsome, Rural Health & Nutrition Extension Agent

Union & Cherokee Counties

I have promoted extension programs and recruited participants at various events/health fairs across Union County this summer. If you see me at a local event, feel free to stop by and ask any questions regarding Clemson Cooperative Extension programing!

I started two “Health Extension for Diabetes (HED)” cohorts for Union residents: one online and one in-person. Registration is open for the in-person cohort until Tuesday 09/19/23, please contact me if you are interested in HED programing.

• HED is a free diabetes support program recognized by the ADA as a practice-tested diabetes support program. The main goal of this program is to help participants better manage diabetes to prevent or delay complications. HED is 4 months long and includes a series of 8 education sessions and intermittent support sessions; Each session is designed to help participants learn more about diabetes and provide them with necessary skills and support to successfully self-manage diabetes. Participants will receive bi-weekly materials and weekly follow-up to help navigate resources and reach healthy lifestyle goals; A Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes diagnosis is required for enrollment.

In July, I spoke at the Union County School District’s (UCSD) Opening Day Professional Development event for UCSD staff. I provided “Know Diabetes By Heart (KDBH)”. If there is an upcoming event or group meeting that you would be interested in me speaking at, I would love to attend. Please feel free to contact me if you have any opportunities or questions.

• KDBH is sponsored by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and American Heart Association (AHA). It is a free education session offered in-person or online. The program aims to help participants better understand the link between diabetes and heart disease. By participating in this one-hour session, you will learn more about risks related to diabetes and heart disease, how to take control of your risks, and learn about community and clinical resources.

It is important for me to be a part of the Union community, so I became a member of the Union County Rotary Club this April. I’m looking forward to upholding the Clemson Extension standard of service!

Julia’s Contact Information:
Office – 864-424-8275
Email – Janewso@clemson.edu

Mark Cathcart, Union County 4-H Agent

Being a 4-H agent is the most rewarding, frustrating, difficult, and easiest job I have ever had.  4-H agents do everything at once while everyone thinks you are doing nothing, or just playing with kids. 

As a blacksmith, I have a desire to pass the love of this trade on to a younger generation. The blacksmithing “tools of the trade” are always two things, heavy and expensive.  With that in mind, I piloted a blacksmithing program with a homeschool group with “makeshift” equipment and some of my own personal tools to see what would happen. The enthusiasm was overwhelming!  At this point I realized that with a dedicated set of equipment their learning curve would steepen, and the love of this trade would deepen. After receiving the Extension Innovation Award, I was able to leverage the City of Union to give some more money to buy the proper equipment.  This equipment has allowed me to accelerate the home school, club, and day camp students’ knowledge and technique.  We even gave the program a name, “Forged In 4-H”.

“Forged In 4-H” is designed to teach metallurgy and blacksmithing skills, as well as provide school enrichment through demonstrations, in a safe manner, with the use of chemistry, geometry, physics, math, and hands on projects. This program and equipment are being used to teach 4-H youth of all ages and any student through school enrichment, including homeschool groups. The equipment is housed in Union County, where the principal teaching location is. The equipment is kept mobile so that it can be moved to any county in the state to conduct short term projects, demonstrations, day camps, and school enrichment.

The use of hands-on learning techniques allows students to experience and learn the trade of blacksmithing. With a resurgence of interest in blacksmithing, this is a need that begs to be met. This program is unique for several reasons. First, we are leading the way in offering blacksmithing in 4-H in the southeast. Only a few counties in the nation offer a 4-H program similar to this one. This may be due to lack of agents and volunteers who do not have the knowledge or funding. The interest in just my county has been overwhelming. Second, blacksmithing is an ancient art, but we will be teaching it in a new, modern, and exciting way. We will be teaching the life skills of blacksmithing to the younger generation, instilling an appreciation for an ancient art form, and preserving skills that we do not need to lose as a society. Third, we will be providing hands-on knowledge and skills in a field that may become a career for some 4-H’ers. Forging, welding, metal working, and fabricating are not going away any time soon. In a world filled with technology, all too often we do not teach youth how to make something real and tangible. With young people spending an exorbitant amount of time on computers and cell phones, real world skills fall to the wayside. Putting simple math and geometry skills to work, seeing chemistry and physics in action, and developing simple hand eye coordination can easily be overlooked.

As youth development agents, it is our job to help young people choose a life path. If we can help these 4-H’ers become productive citizens, then we have done our job.

September, 2023

In January, I always look forward to judging the 4-H Wildlife Food Plots that were planted by 4-H’ers in the fall of the year.  This year I visited Newberry, Laurens, and Saluda Counties to judge six different food plots.  The 4-H Wildlife Food Plot Project gives participants a bag of seed to plant a certain size food plot.  The participants then monitor that food plot through a specified time frame and complete a record book with their findings.  Many participants set up game cameras, bird houses, and blinds to monitor the wildlife that visit their plot.  They also monitor rainfall and document nutrients added to soil to help the pot grow.    If you know of youth between the ages of 5 and 19 that maybe interested in the 4-H Wildlife Food Plot Project have them contact their local 4-H Agent at Clemson Extension.
The Laurens Forest Landowners Association and the Newberry Forestry Association both hosted meetings in November of 2022.

The Laurens Forest Landowners Association meeting focused on vegetation management for the landowner, while the Newberry Forestry Association learned how to calculate and measure seedling survival on a newly planted stand. 
Wood Magic Forest Fair is a program hosted by the South Carolina Forestry Commission.  This is a great program that teaches fifth graders from across the state about forestry.  This year I had the opportunity to present at the gifts stations during the Harbison Wood Magic Forest Fair. For more information this program please visit: https://www.scfc.gov/education/wood-magic/

October is always a busy time in Union, because the Clemson Extension Office is actively involved in the local fair.  We manage the livestock shows, home economics department, agronomy department and the poultry department.  On Thursday of the fair, we invite all the 5K classes throughout the county to visit the fair and to come learn about agriculture in Union County.  Through this field trip, the students get a tour through the barn and learn about crops, bees, horses, dairy cows, beef cows, pigs, and chickens.

This past December, I had the opportunity through South Carolina Farm Bureau to travel to Washington DC with a few other Young Farmer and Ranchers from across our state to meet with our legislators, government ag agencies, and Farm Bureau staff. It was eye-opening and humbling to see how policy for our country is made. We had the privilege to sit down with policymakers and tell them exactly what we do as well as the challenges we face as farmers.  They were eager to listen and provide feedback on legislation that will keep Agriculture the number one industry in our state. Many of the discussions led back to farmland loss as we learned that South Carolina is 8th for the fastest loss of farmland. That was statistic was alarming. I work with many multi-generational farmers that have no succession plans. I also work with first-generation farms that are clawing to get access to land. Both are affected by the increased urban sprawl in our state. This trip was a reminder to help my producers to be able to tell their stories and communicate with people who don’t understand farming. Also, this sparked a renewed interest in promoting ways to keep the farm viable to keep farmers on their land. This past December, I hosted a workshop on Farm Successional Planning that presented information on how to strategically transfer the business and the land. We also discussed conservation easements and other strategies to keep farmland affordable for new farmers as well as veteran farmers. As we look forward to the Spring, we will continue with programs that focus on the business aspect of farming because we know that profitable farms with good succession plans don’t give way to strip malls and townhomes nearly as easily.

Back Yard Poultry Processing Grant Update:
We had a very successful first workshop with our mobile processing grant. Despite the hurricane-force wind and rain, we harvested 100 broilers. Participants were able to grow the birds for 7 weeks and then learned safe and humane practices for harvesting the chickens. We teamed up with the 4H and the Food Safety team to offer a day-long program on harvesting techniques, food safety, and the economics of raising boilers. Our next program is scheduled for May. We look forward to a productive Spring, thank you for continued support of our programs.

Chris LeMaster, Area Livestock and Forages Agent