Extension, Outreach and Research Activities
For promotion to Public Service Associate
J. Phil Campbell
Crop and Soil Sciences Department
What I do
Extension 80% and research 20%
100% funded by two USDA-NIFA grants
•
One grant covers impacts of climate change on
crops in the Southeast
•
The other grant covers climate change impacts
on livestock production throughout the US
Summary of work over 3 years
State
Regional
National
Total
Extension
outreach/
meetings
28
23
14
65
Outreach
talks
28
18
10
56
Outreach
publications
53
8
4
65
Technical
requests
75
36
16
127
1
6
15
22
101
2
9
112
Research
posters/
presentations
Media
contacts
Course Topics
WEATHER TRENDS: What trends in climate are happening in my area?
IMPACTS: How does the weather affect animal agriculture?
ADAPTATION: How can we reduce risks, plan for changes, and make the best
investments?
CLIMATE SCIENCE: What is the science behind climate and weather?
GREENHOUSE GAS (GHG) SOURCES: Is animal agriculture a big contributor
of Greenhouse Gases?
MITIGATION OF GHGS: Can farmers reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
REGULATIONS: Are regulations of GHGs likely?
COMMUNICATING SCIENCE: How can we communicate this complex issue
to farmers and media outlets?
Course Delivery
• Modules are offered
through the University
of Minnesota Moodle
system
• Approximately 240
people have registered
for the course,
including those from
18 different countries
• Modules are graded
and participants who
finish the course
receive continuing
education credits
In addition to the online course, the project has a website with many
resources which won an award for website design from ASABE in 2015.
Regional workshops
• Waste to Worth Conferences in Denver 2013 and
Seattle 2015
• Presentations at the National Association of County
Agricultural Agents, Mobile AL 2014
• Regional conferences in College Station TX, Ithaca NY,
Seattle WA, Stillwater OK
• Southern Regional Extension Climate Academy in
Athens in September 2014
Climate Variability to Climate Change: Extension
Challenges and Opportunities in the Southeast USA
• Done in conjunction with the Southeast Climate Consortium
• Includes projects with the TriState crop working group, Federation for
Southern Cooperatives, and other agencies
Products
http://www.agroclimate.org/seclimate
/extension-resources/
Online activities
http://blog.extension.uga.edu/climate
Research: What is the impact of
changing climate on growing season?
• Climate models typically say that the average temperature will rise by X
degrees in the future
• Average temperatures are not useful to most producers—instead we
looked at distributions of spring and fall temperatures and the growing
season length
Research: What is the impact of
changing climate on growing season?
• Use analog approach based on past data
• Separate years into warmest, coldest, and intermediate
thirds
• Look at changes in spring and fall temperature
distributions and growing season
• Compare spatially across the Southeast
Research: What is the impact of
changing climate on growing season?
Summer maximum
temperature distributions
shifted with little change
in shape, indicating that
for calculations of heat
stress and degree days, it
could be appropriate to
simply add 1 degree of
temperature to each daily
record to simulate a 1 ̊ F
change in average
temperature
Conclusions:
• Extreme low temperatures
become more rare but still
occur
• Temperature distributions
near the ocean were
compressed—Tmax did not
increase as much as inland
• The growing season increased
by approximately one week per
1 degree F increase in
temperature
My Current Status
• Funded through March 2016 with possible
no-cost extension
• Currently on several NIFA grant proposals
that are under evaluation
• If you are working on grant proposals that
have a weather or climate component I am
interested in working with you!