April Glover

rbarron@utk.edu Ronnie Barron, Director, Extension Agent

sknaus@utk.edu Sierra Knaus, Extension Agent

aglover8@utk.edu April Glover, Extension Agent

pbowman5@utk.edu Gayle Bowman, Administrative Assistant

http://cheatham.tennessee.edu Facebook: Cheatham County—UT & TSU Extension

Twitter: CheathamCoExt

UT & TSU Cheatham County Extension 162 County Services Drive, Suite 110

Ashland City, TN 37015 615-792-4420

New Educational Program for Female Inmates

On February 2, 2016, Extension began a new partnership with the Cheatham County Jail. Through

the help of a recently retired jail employee, Betty Ramsey, fourteen female adult inmates began

participating in a life skill program to encourage the right attitude in life. The main focus of this

program is to teach coping mechanisms to deal with hurt, pain and shame from their past. Inmates

can now look at their present situation and decide what changes need to take place in their future.

95% of participants decided to focus on rebuilding relationships with their children and regaining

personal confidence.

Sierra Knaus

Ronnie Barron

4-H Fun in February One of the goals of Cheatham County 4-H’s in school 4-H program is to increase lifeskills of the members. During the month of February, educational programs were presented to all 4-H members in the area of either healthy living/nutrition or financial management. These are two very important skills young people need to become successful adults. 4th graders participated in a lesson to learn how to read food labels and compare the nutritional value of different foods they may be likely to eat. The importance of exercising 60 minutes a day was also emphasized. At the end of the lesson, a healthy snack was made and enjoyed. 5th and 6th graders played the game Jenga to represent their financial situation. When poor decisions were made, a block from Jenga had to be removed and the tower became less stable- just as your financial situation weakens with poor decisions. Great discussions were had related to making smart decisions when shopping and saving.

In the month of February, we kicked off our 2016 Advanced Master Beef Producer Program with over 80 producers participating. The Cheatham and Robertson County Extension offices combine efforts in this multi-county educational program, which is held over a 6 week period at the Exhibit Hall of the Robertson County Fairgrounds in Springfield. So far, participants have had the opportunity to learn about better ways to manage and improve their forage resources, as well as the latest research in meeting the nutritional needs of the beef herd. In addition, the local Extension office has assisted numerous producers with the selection of herd sires from “bull sales” and private treaty sales, with the ultimate goal of improving profitability within our local beef cattle operations.