Winfield Solutions is sponsoring the following business/pest update seminar. Great speakers and a free lunch; that's hard to beat!
Strategic Business Management Forum
featuring Pest Update
We know economic challenges strain your business. Sometimes deciding where to make sacrifices in your budget can be complex, risky and the desired results not immediately realized. We hope you can join us for a seminar discussing managing risk and making the most of marketing opportunities in our industry today. As an added bonus you will also hear the current status of whitefly distribution and their control tactics.
Keynote Speakers:
Dr. Charlie Hall, Texas A&M
Dr. Alan Hodges, University of Florida
Dr. Lance Osborne, University of Florida, Mid-Florida Research and Education Center
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
9:00am to 1:00pm
Gulf Coast REC・Balm
14625 CR 672 ● Wimauma, FL 33598
CEU・s Offered ● Free Registration ● Lunch Provided
SPONSORED BY: BASF ● DOW ● OHP ●Syngenta ● Winfield Solutions
7/23/12
150 Years and Counting!
On July 2, 1962 one hundred and fifty years ago, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morril Act into law (introduced by Justin Smith Morril from Vermont) that established the land grant system. This Act designated money from the sales of granted lands to states for the establishment of universities to educate the working class in engineering and agricultural arts and helped to establish some of the best universities in the world. The University of Florida is the result of this momentus legislation in the midst of a civil war. Here is a brief look at history from the University of Florida Land Grant Page http://landgrant.ufl.edu/
Bok Tower Needs a Gardner
Here is an opportunity for someone who would enjoy the opportunity to be responsible for the horticultural care of a beautiful garden...
Bok Tower Garden is currently seeking a full-time Gardener. The primary responsibility is to perform general gardening duties to maintain the integrity and beauty of the Gardens and grounds. To be responsible for the care and cultivation of an assigned garden area which may include annual and permanent plantings, pathway maintenance, water bodies, lawns, wildlife, and garden furnishings.
Qualifications include but are not limited to: previous experience in garden maintenance practices with the ability to operate various types of power equipment; the ability to perform strenuous physical work outside in Florida weather year round; the ability to understand and interpret work instruction; the ability to lift at least 60 lbs. Valid driver’s license required.
We offer competitive wages and an attractive benefits package. Resumes accompanied by letters of interest may be submitted by mail, fax or email in Microsoft Word format only to any of the following. Applications may also be picked up at the entrance gate at the street address listed below and may be mailed or returned to the entrance gate for processing. Bok Tower Garden is an Equal Opportunity Employers and a Drug-Free Workplace employer.
Human Resources
Bok Tower Garden
1151 Tower Blvd.
Lake Wales, FL 33853
Fax: 863-676-6770
Email: ryoung@boksanctuary.org
Only qualified applicants will be contacted
Bok Tower Garden is currently seeking a full-time Gardener. The primary responsibility is to perform general gardening duties to maintain the integrity and beauty of the Gardens and grounds. To be responsible for the care and cultivation of an assigned garden area which may include annual and permanent plantings, pathway maintenance, water bodies, lawns, wildlife, and garden furnishings.
Qualifications include but are not limited to: previous experience in garden maintenance practices with the ability to operate various types of power equipment; the ability to perform strenuous physical work outside in Florida weather year round; the ability to understand and interpret work instruction; the ability to lift at least 60 lbs. Valid driver’s license required.
We offer competitive wages and an attractive benefits package. Resumes accompanied by letters of interest may be submitted by mail, fax or email in Microsoft Word format only to any of the following. Applications may also be picked up at the entrance gate at the street address listed below and may be mailed or returned to the entrance gate for processing. Bok Tower Garden is an Equal Opportunity Employers and a Drug-Free Workplace employer.
Human Resources
Bok Tower Garden
1151 Tower Blvd.
Lake Wales, FL 33853
Fax: 863-676-6770
Email: ryoung@boksanctuary.org
Only qualified applicants will be contacted
Lake Region FNGLA Meeting
The FNGLA Lake Region Chapter will be having their next meeting on Aug. 7, 2012. It will be at City of Lakeland Nursery, 4620 Highway 98 South, Lakeland, FL. Dinner will be at Gators Dockside, 5147 Highway 98 South, Lakeland,Fl.
PLEASE EMAIL FOR RESERVATIONS FOR DINNER IF YOU CAN COME.
-or-
CALL KAREN NORRIS IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS 863-644-6491
PLEASE EMAIL FOR RESERVATIONS FOR DINNER IF YOU CAN COME.
-or-
CALL KAREN NORRIS IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS 863-644-6491
7/11/12
How's Your Business?
We have all heard the adage, "To measure is to know." How are you doing as a business? How are you doing compared to your peers? What is your return on all the hard work you are doing? Is it worth it? Are you losing or making money year over year? Is this money better off in another type of investment other than growing plants. You can't answer these questions unless you take a little bit of time to do some measurements. Drs. Paul Fisher, Alan Hodges, Charlie Hall and Bill Swanekamp, have written a paper that was in the OFA Bulletin May/June 2012 edition that discusses the importance of benchmarking your business. This article deals with young plant and bedding plant producers. It also gives the stats of their operations to see what is the industry average.
Benchmarking is a process that allows you to see how your business is doing in comparison to others in the same business. This is a great way to find strengths and weaknesses in your operation and take management decisions to improve on the overall outcome of your balance sheet.
If you spend a little time with your annual income statement and this article you might be surprised at how you are doing. Here is the link for the article. http://hillsborough.extension.ufl.edu/Ag/AgOrnProd/documents/MineYourIncomeMay-June2012Bulletin.pdf
For those of you who want to see how a broader perspective of the nursery industry are doing and how you compare there is the Horticulture Business Analysis System. This is a UF/IFAS program that allows you to use your income statement and input your values into the system to see how you compare with others in the same business. Currently the system has data for greenhouse tropical foliage, shadehouse tropical foliage (South Florida), container-grown woody ornamentals, field-grown woody ornamentals, flowering plants, bedding plants and cut foliage (ferneries). Within each commodity group, information is available for subgroups by firm size, profitability, location (state, county) and year. Here is a link to that site. https://hortbusiness.ifas.ufl.edu/analysis/
Benchmarking is a process that allows you to see how your business is doing in comparison to others in the same business. This is a great way to find strengths and weaknesses in your operation and take management decisions to improve on the overall outcome of your balance sheet.
If you spend a little time with your annual income statement and this article you might be surprised at how you are doing. Here is the link for the article. http://hillsborough.extension.ufl.edu/Ag/AgOrnProd/documents/MineYourIncomeMay-June2012Bulletin.pdf
For those of you who want to see how a broader perspective of the nursery industry are doing and how you compare there is the Horticulture Business Analysis System. This is a UF/IFAS program that allows you to use your income statement and input your values into the system to see how you compare with others in the same business. Currently the system has data for greenhouse tropical foliage, shadehouse tropical foliage (South Florida), container-grown woody ornamentals, field-grown woody ornamentals, flowering plants, bedding plants and cut foliage (ferneries). Within each commodity group, information is available for subgroups by firm size, profitability, location (state, county) and year. Here is a link to that site. https://hortbusiness.ifas.ufl.edu/analysis/
Wanted: Environmental Horticulture Professor
It was exciting to find out in my travels to the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Balm that they have posted an employment opportunity seeking an assistant professor of environmental horticulture. The GCREC will be seeking a candidate to pursue research and extension activities in environmental horticulture, particularly commercial production, evaluation, and management of plants for human-dominated landscapes.
This is great news for our local enviro. hort. producers and landscapers. The candidate will be working with the Center for Landscape Conservation and Ecology whose mission is to protect Florida's natural resources by responsible landscape management. According to Jack Rechcigl the Center Director, they are looking at around September for interviews. If you have any input you would like to share regarding the hiring of someone please give the GCREC a call 813-634-0000. I will keep you posted on the progress of this opportunity.
This is great news for our local enviro. hort. producers and landscapers. The candidate will be working with the Center for Landscape Conservation and Ecology whose mission is to protect Florida's natural resources by responsible landscape management. According to Jack Rechcigl the Center Director, they are looking at around September for interviews. If you have any input you would like to share regarding the hiring of someone please give the GCREC a call 813-634-0000. I will keep you posted on the progress of this opportunity.
7/6/12
Exporting Plants to Canada
Workshop on Revisions to the Canadian Cerification Program July 31, 2012 from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm at the UF/IFAS Mid‐Florida Research and Education Center, Building B Auditorium, 2725 S. Binion Road, Apopka, FL 32703.
This workshop is for growers who export ornamental plants to Canada or who are interested in exporting to Canada. The workshop is free and lunch will be provided. Everyone that registers for the workshop, will be sent a document by e-mail that is a proposed replacement for the current U.S. Greenhouse Certification Program. The main purpose of the workshop is to get feedback from everyone on what they think about the proposed new certification scheme. It is important that all registered attendees read the scheme before attending the workshop.
For more information about the workshop click on this link.
Canadian Export Workshop Link
This workshop is for growers who export ornamental plants to Canada or who are interested in exporting to Canada. The workshop is free and lunch will be provided. Everyone that registers for the workshop, will be sent a document by e-mail that is a proposed replacement for the current U.S. Greenhouse Certification Program. The main purpose of the workshop is to get feedback from everyone on what they think about the proposed new certification scheme. It is important that all registered attendees read the scheme before attending the workshop.
For more information about the workshop click on this link.
Canadian Export Workshop Link
Back In Place
UF/IFAS Extension has a new boss...
The following article is from UF/IFAS News and written by Tom Nordlie, 352-273-3567, tnordlie@ufl.edu
Former University of Florida faculty member Nick Place is returning to Gainesville to become the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences dean for extension and director of the Florida Cooperative Extension Service.
Jack Payne, UF senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources, made the announcement July 2. Place officially takes the position Sept. 15.
“I’m thrilled that we were able to find someone with the energy, vision and character that Dr. Place has,” Payne said. “That he’s already familiar with the University of Florida, our land-grant mission and the people here – that’s a bonus.”
Like other land-grant institutions, UF/IFAS has a three-pronged mission of teaching, research and extension—an effort that includes faculty members positioned all over the state who translate research findings into information easily understood by the public.
Extension faculty duties include everything from conducting specialized training for agricultural producers to mentoring 4-H club members to teaching residents how to build water-saving rain barrels.
UF/IFAS conducted a national search for a dean to replace the departing Millie Ferrer-Chancy, interim dean since February 2009. The search led them to Place, someone already familiar to many in the extension program.
Currently, Place is associate dean and associate director of University of Maryland Extension in College Park, Maryland. He’s been with the institution since August 2007.
Before that, he worked for eight years on the faculty of UF’s Department of Agricultural Education and Communication. He was the department’s graduate coordinator and spent two years as coordinator for the Program Development and Evaluation Center, which assists faculty members in designing programs and assessing their effectiveness.
Specializing in extension education, Place taught undergraduate and graduate courses on the role and development of extension, extension methods, adult education, extension administration and supervision, and extension systems.
To date, he has served on more than 60 graduate committees and chaired more than 20 of those.
Place, a Pennsylvania native, said he’s excited about returning to Florida and its flagship university. He said he feels there is tremendous opportunity to build upon UF’s already strong extension program.
“Jack Payne and I want the University of Florida to have the premier extension program in the country,” he said. “Initially, it will be important to meet with people, both internally and externally, to get a real good handle on the organization and what’s been working well, and also develop some strategies to further advance our efforts.”
Place earned a bachelor’s degree in dairy husbandry at Delaware Valley College, his master’s in dairy and animal science and his doctorate in agricultural and extension education, both from The Pennsylvania State University.
The following article is from UF/IFAS News and written by Tom Nordlie, 352-273-3567, tnordlie@ufl.edu
Former University of Florida faculty member Nick Place is returning to Gainesville to become the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences dean for extension and director of the Florida Cooperative Extension Service.
Jack Payne, UF senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources, made the announcement July 2. Place officially takes the position Sept. 15.
“I’m thrilled that we were able to find someone with the energy, vision and character that Dr. Place has,” Payne said. “That he’s already familiar with the University of Florida, our land-grant mission and the people here – that’s a bonus.”
Like other land-grant institutions, UF/IFAS has a three-pronged mission of teaching, research and extension—an effort that includes faculty members positioned all over the state who translate research findings into information easily understood by the public.
Extension faculty duties include everything from conducting specialized training for agricultural producers to mentoring 4-H club members to teaching residents how to build water-saving rain barrels.
UF/IFAS conducted a national search for a dean to replace the departing Millie Ferrer-Chancy, interim dean since February 2009. The search led them to Place, someone already familiar to many in the extension program.
Currently, Place is associate dean and associate director of University of Maryland Extension in College Park, Maryland. He’s been with the institution since August 2007.
Before that, he worked for eight years on the faculty of UF’s Department of Agricultural Education and Communication. He was the department’s graduate coordinator and spent two years as coordinator for the Program Development and Evaluation Center, which assists faculty members in designing programs and assessing their effectiveness.
Specializing in extension education, Place taught undergraduate and graduate courses on the role and development of extension, extension methods, adult education, extension administration and supervision, and extension systems.
To date, he has served on more than 60 graduate committees and chaired more than 20 of those.
Place, a Pennsylvania native, said he’s excited about returning to Florida and its flagship university. He said he feels there is tremendous opportunity to build upon UF’s already strong extension program.
“Jack Payne and I want the University of Florida to have the premier extension program in the country,” he said. “Initially, it will be important to meet with people, both internally and externally, to get a real good handle on the organization and what’s been working well, and also develop some strategies to further advance our efforts.”
Place earned a bachelor’s degree in dairy husbandry at Delaware Valley College, his master’s in dairy and animal science and his doctorate in agricultural and extension education, both from The Pennsylvania State University.
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