Alexander County Newsletter
January 2021
The Alexander County Center is now open to the public. To prevent the spread of COVID-19 and ensure the health of county employees, citizens who are sick or running a fever should not visit these facilities. Citizens who do visit are required to wear a cloth face covering and maintain social distance of at least six feet.  The county still encourages business to be conducted via phone or email when possible, but realizes that in-person interaction is necessary in some cases.  Agents are still available, so please call them at 828-632-4451 or email.  For a list of email addresses click the following link:  https://alexander.ces.ncsu.edu/people/
New County Extension Director in Alexander County
Allison Brown, former N.C. Cooperative Extension Agent-Alexander County, Agriculture Agent, has been named the new County Extension Director effective January 4th.  Allison has served as the livestock and field crop agent for 20 years.  She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from NC State University.  Allison has brought astounding programs to the citizens of Alexander County by serving in many capacities.  She has helped with youth educational programs in addition to assisting our farmers and agriculture community improve production by finding solutions and providing them up-to-date resources.  We are excited about 2021 and look forward to working with Allison as the County Extension Director.  Allison resides in the Hiddenite community on the family farm with her husband, Brandon, and their two sons, Garrett and Weston.    
End of Year Report Card for Your Beef Cattle Operation

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Tax time is approaching and soon you will be gathering your boxes with receipts and log books together. This chore is a dreaded time in most farming families with no exceptions in mine! However this can also be an opportunity for you to really examine your beef cattle operation for the year. Since you have most of the information already gathered, this would be an excellent time for you to use a beef cow-calf enterprise budget spreadsheet.

The University of Wisconsin Extension has developed and released a new beef cow-calf enterprise budget spreadsheet. After entering your information into the spreadsheet, it will provide you with information that can be used to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement within your farming operation.   The spreadsheet can also be used for doing projections, and looking at how potential changes can impact the cow-calf enterprise's cash flow.

The enterprise budget is designed to calculate profit or loss and break evens on a whole herd, per cow, and per cwt of feeder calf sold basis when complete information is entered. It is designed to allow user defined parameters for calculating many overhead expenses.

Examples are included in each section, and users can modify by adding, removing or renaming items to fit their operation. Directions and guidelines for using the spreadsheet are located in an Adobe Acrobat file that can be accessed at the top, near the center of the spreadsheet.

http://fyi.uwex.edu/wbic/cowcalf/ then scroll down to Economic Tools and click on the budget spreadsheet link.

Don't let all of your tax preparation go to waste. A few more minutes and you can know exactly how much each cow is costing you and what you need to make on each calf in order for her to turn a profit.
4-H Gingerbread House Contest
In December Alexander County 4-H had its Annual Gingerbread House Decorating Contest. Eowyn Berwick and Finn Berwick were the 1st place winners and received a 4-H tumbler for their entries. The houses had to fit on a 20"x20" base, with all other materials being edible. These entries were very detailed with the walls being constructed of pop-tarts held together by icing, also including jelly beans and chocolate candies.  All entries were judged on creativity. Below are some pictures of the houses.  Congratulations Eowyn and Finn!
NC State University and N.C. A&T State University commit themselves to positive action to secure equal opportunity and prohibit discrimination and harassment regardless of age, color, disability, family and marital status, genetic information, national origin, political beliefs, race, religion, sexual identity (including pregnancy) and veteran status. NC State, N.C. A&T, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local governments cooperating.