Field days remain a valuable part of the Nebraska Extension playbook. But as busy as we all are, it’s hard to find time to attend events which is why Scout Nebraska brings timely crop updates to you.
Scout Nebraska is a new initiative from Nebraska Extension, providing field updates through social media.
It doesn’t replace the hands-on learning that happens at field days across the state. Events like Soybean Management Field Days, Crop and Soil Health Clinic, and Weed Management Field Day allow producers to get hands-on, while networking with other growers, and visiting with university experts.
But farmers wear a lot of hats so getting away for a couple of hours to attend a field day isn’t always realistic.
“We’ve tried to go to the people. It’s hard to get people to field days because everyone’s busy,” said Dylan Mangel, Extension Plant Pathologist.
That’s where Scout Nebraska comes in. The effort uses the hashtag #ScoutNebraska across social media, along with regular livestreams as specialists share disease and insect updates from fields across the state.
“We want to meet the growers where they are, however it works best for them,” Mangel said.
Extension educators have been sharing bite sized videos and updates all season and now built that concept into a virtual field day.
Instead of asking folks to travel to one location, specialists checked in from across Nebraska, showing what they were seeing in corn, soybeans, alfalfa, sorghum and other crops.
“We’re just trying to show what issues growers are dealing with this year and maybe doing some pest diagnostics, pest management, all those kinds of things,” said Talon Mues of Nebraska Extension.
He’s part of the innovative new scouting effort and took part in the first-ever virtual field day.
“If somebody wants to tune in from Falls City, they can see what’s going on in central Nebraska, out here in Dawson County and vice versa,” he said.
Scout Nebraska helps connect those dots in real time and see what emerging threats may on the horizon.
It doesn’t replace the field day but it is expanding the reach of Extension’s traditional work and adapting it for our connected world.
Mues said, “Our virtual field day is really just kind of showing what Nebraska agriculture has to offer.”
The virtual field day was a first, with more than a dozen Extension personnel providing updates.
That effort continues weekly on a smaller scale, regular updates on social media.
“Scout Nebraska is on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag Scout Nebraska and then our YouTube channel is just at Scout Nebraska,” Mues said.
Scout Nebraska is a statewide social media initiative that encourages farmers, crop consultants, educators and others to share photos and observations from Nebraska fields. By using the #ScoutNebraska hashtag, participants help create a real-time snapshot of crop conditions, insects, diseases and other issues across the state, making field observations easier to discover and learn from.
So for farmers who can’t always make it to the field day, the field day may be coming to them.
