Western Integrated
Ranch/Farm Education (WIRE)
Western Integrated
Ranch/Farm Education (WIRE)
ABSTRACT:
Traditionally, there is a perception that land grant universities have not adequately emphasized whole farm or ranch systems research. A team of Wyoming extension professionals has expanded, refined, and adapted a Texas integrated systems approach to management creating a program entitled WIRE-Western Integrated Ranch/Farm Education. While several western states are offering WIRE programs, most other programs do not have a vehicle available. This proposal would expand the scope of WIRE program offerings by introducing extension professionals in other states to the WIRE management process, its educational approach, and materials, thus allowing U.S. agricultural managers access to a proven method for improved management and enhanced responsiveness to a changing environment.
OBJECTIVES:
1. To make copies of a WIRE Case Study Video training package available to county extension offices across the United States.
2. To offer a one-hour satellite broadcast on the use of the WIRE Case Study Video training package to extension professionals, agricultural producers, and other interested agency personnel in all 50 states in a program titled "Integrated Management and Strategic Goal Setting".
3. To evaluate the demand for the full WIRE course - an integrated, resource-based management-process educational program - by ranchers/farmers, extension educators, and interested others in the western region and across the US.
4. To make existing WIRE program course materials and teaching technique accessible to other extension professionals across the US through the USDA "Managing Change in Agriculture" project.
EXPECTED COMPLETION DATE: April,
1997
PROJECT TEAM:
John Hewlett, Project coordinator
Kent Drake, extension educator
Gene Gade, extension educator
Randy Weigel, Wyoming Associate Director, extension
programs
CONTACT:
John Hewlett, Farm/Ranch Management Specialist
WIRE Project Coordinator
University of Wyoming
P.O. Box 3354
Laramie, Wyoming 82071-3354
Phone: (307) 766-5542
Fax: (307) 766-5544
E-mail:
hewlett@uwyo.edu
