published in

The Peace River Farmer and Rancher

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The Internet is quickly becoming the accepted form of communication for agriculture. For computer-oriented cattlemen there are several Internet sites of local interest. One site is about the Range Cattle Research and Education Center (REC) at Ona, developed by Dr. Bill Brown. At this site the user can access our faculty and e-mail addresses. The site presents information about the research center and its programs. Most important, the site contains all practical publications written by the Range Cattle REC faculty for Florida cattlemen over the past 15 years. These publications can be viewed and/or printed from your computer.

A second site relates to the South Florida Beef-Forage Extension Program. This program covers ten south-central Florida counties. Its goal is to coordinate extension and research activities for enhanced forage and cattle production in central and south Florida. This site provides information about each county, such as a monthly newsletter and information on the extension faculty involved. The site also provides information on educational programs available to area cattlemen, a calendar of events, and a list of providers of various services and products.

Each of the above sites have links to many related cattle and forage organizations. These include the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), the departments of Animal Science and Agronomy, breed associations, and numerous other in-state and out-of-state agencies. A site of particular interest is FAIRS, a University of Florida/IFAS site which provides access to thousands of publications covering all facets of Florida agriculture.

Recently, the University of Florida/IFAS added a weather network called FAWN. This is a system of 15 solar powered weather towers located throughout peninsular Florida to provide freeze warning information. Each tower provides temperatures at various heights, rainfall, wind data, humidity, barometric pressure, and solar radiation. Each weather tower can be accessed to obtain weather data updated every 15 minutes to one hour throughout the year. Weather data for the previous seven days can be reviewed and charted. The weather towers of greatest interest to local citizens are located at Ona, Lake Alfred, Dover, Bradenton, and Immokalee.

Internet addresses for the above sites are:

    Range Cattle REC HTTP://www.ifas.ufl.edu/~ona/onahp.html

    South Florida Beef-Forage HTTP://www.ifas.ufl.edu/~sfbfp/beef.html

    FAWN Weather Network HTTP://hammock.ifas.ufl.edu/fawn

For questions or comments regarding this publication contact Findlay Pate

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