Agriculture
UI Extension, Washington County provides a variety of resources on the following topics:
Community Supported Agriculture
Learn about community-supported agriculture (CSA) with UI Extension’s publication Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): A marketing strategy for small acreage producers in Idaho (CIS 1173).
Cultivating Success™ Program
Explore the Cultivating Success™ Program, a partnership between Washington State University, the University of Idaho and Rural Roots.
The Cultivating Success™ Program offers a series of courses that provide beginning and existing farmers with planning and decision-making tools, production skills and support necessary to develop a sustainable small acreage farm.
ATTRA, The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service
ATTRA is committed to providing high value information and technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, Extension agents, educators and others involved in sustainable agriculture in the United States.
This program is developed and managed by the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT), with the majority of funding provided by a cooperative agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service.
We are also partially funded through sales and subscriptions of a portion of ATTRA materials and through contributions from friends and supporters.
Idaho livestock producers draw on UI Extension expertise to protect their herds and operate more efficiently.
Economic trends in recent years strongly favored the animal industries of Idaho, enhancing their contributions to the state economy.
Beef Quality Assurance
The UI Extension beef team provides publications, research and programs in support of Idaho’s beef producers, industries and government agencies.
Explore University of Idaho's Beef website for more information.
Weeds and Horses
Some noxious or invasive weeds are highly toxic to horses and can cause problems if allowed to invade pastures.
This may be partially due to the extensive taproot in many broadleaf weeds that allow them to remain green longer into the dry season, so that they appear attractive to horses grazing in poor pastures.
This list includes
- Tansy ragwort
- Yellow starthistle
- Russian knapweed
- Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense)
- Poison hemlocks
- Field bindweed
- Houndstongue
- Scotchbroom (Cytisus scoparius)
- Horsetails
- Leafy spurge
- Black henbane (Hyoscyamus niger)
- Klamath weed or St. Johnswort
- Kochia
- Yellow toadflax or butter-and-eggs (Linaria vulgaris)
- Silver leaf nightshade (Solanum elaeagnifolium)
- Puncturevine
Explore the Equines & Toxic Plants website for more information.
Visit Forage website for information on pasture and grazing management, animal nutrition, variety testing and more.
Idaho supports one of the nation’s most diverse agricultural economies. Our famous potatoes and high quality wheat are known worldwide.
Explore crop production resources through the University of Idaho Extension website, or check out the NASS Crop Reports for information on crop and livestock conditions, weekly temperatures, precipitation and soil temperatures.
Growing tree fruits
Successfully growing tree fruits comes from understanding the specifics of your climate and conditions as well as selecting the right species and varieties to grow.
Some tree fruits, such as apples, pie cherries and plums, can be grown anywhere in Idaho. Others, like peaches and sweet cherries, may not survive or produce in the colder climates and high elevation areas in the state.
After planting the best trees, there is still much to learn about caring for fruit trees to enhance production and fruit quality.
Treasure Valley Pest Alert Network
The Pest Alert Network is used as a communication tool to deliver accurate and timely pest outbreak information to the agriculture industry. In addition, the website provides control information resources for pests identified in pest alert news items.
UI Extension helps producers improve skills essential to farm and ranch management. Efforts focus on research-based, Idaho-specific information.
Explore the UI Extension Farm and Ranch Management website, and access the crop budgets and annual input cost surveys for previous years through Idaho AgBiz.
IDAH2O Master Water Stewards is UI Extension's innovative program to train citizen volunteers about regional water quality issues.