Staff searching for a central location to find solutions to their software questions have a place to turn.

The Quick Tips and Resource Links site, or QTips is now available to help answer specific questions about Microsoft Office programs such as Word, PowerPoint or Outlook, and other software applications. Want to know how to use formulas in an Excel spreadsheet or how to change margins in a Word document, just connect to QTips. Learn how to shorten a long URL or get assistance on  Adobe Acrobat Reader. Whatever the problem, QTips can help assist in  identifying a resource.Employees can ask or answer any type of query, post targeted tips and guide sheets or recommend external resource links. The site is indexed, easily searchable and is run by employees for employees.

To sign on to QTips, visit the FSA SharePoint site at https://fsa.sc.egov.usda.gov/QTips/default.aspx

Dave Russell (center, holding plaque) was recognized by Indiana FSA employees for 30 years of broadcasting service to the agriculture community.

The Indiana Farm Service Agency office bid farewell to Dave Russell, broadcaster with Brownfield Radio Farm Broadcasters, after more than 30 years of providing up-to-date coverage of Indiana’s agricultural issues. FSA employees met with Russell and thanked him for his passion, understanding and working relationship with the Farm Service Agency. FSA State Executive Director Julia A. Wickard presented him with a certificate of appreciation for his decades of leadership to the Indiana agricultural community. Russell will move to Ohio where he will work as farm director for Brownfield. He will be replaced by Meghan Grebner.

 
Once one of the largest tobacco making farms, The Chaney Family Farm has reinvented itself into a profitable dairy operation that has an ice cream shop and movie night.

by Winnie Breeding, Kentucky FSA State Office

If you were to ask Carl Chaney if he thought one day his family farm would be a local hangout for ice cream lovers and movie goers while still creating products that line grocery shelves, his answer would be "no".

In 1888, the first Chaney family moved to the Kentucky area and began farming. Surprisingly enough, at one time the Chaney farm was one of Kentucky's largest tobacco producers with approximately 50 acres of burley tobacco. Carl's father, Jim, began the dairy in the 1940's with two Jersey cows. At first, the dairy operation was simply there to pay for Jim's college expenses, but as the farm grew it turned into a way of life and soon Jim dreamed that one day the milk from his Jersey herd would reach the grocery shelves.

Continue reading →

The Nebraska Farm Service Agency has encouraged 16 families in the Harvard city area to come together and create a community People’s Garden. “I prefer to help people help themselves,” said David Studnicka, Clay County FSA executive director. That’s why Studnicka chose a community garden. He initially started with five people and five plots. When word got around, that number increased to 16. Read more (Hastings Tribune).

 
FSA has helped Clothilde Ntahomvukiye and Michele Mpambazi adjust to farming in northern New England. Both participate in the New Farms for New Americans project and have been farming since they were children.

The USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) in Vermont is going above and beyond to reach socially disadvantaged farmers in the Green Mountain state. FSA’s Vermont State Executive Director Robert Paquin cites the outstanding work of two Vermont-based FSA employees in particular — brothers Brad and Larry Parker — as key to Vermont FSA’s success in reaching new immigrants from Africa and Asia and helping them adjust to farming in northern New England.

Continue reading →