Business adoption of the Internet has been rapid. By 2007, more than 63 percent of all U.S. farms have access to a computer and 55 percent report having Internet access. Passage of the 2008 Farm Bill (Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008) created major changes under the farm program’s commodity title. Over 154,000 operators and landowners in the state of Iowa were expected to participate in the new 5-year commodity farm program. Decisions regarding the new Supplemental Revenue (SURE) disaster program, Direct & Counter-Cyclical Program (DCP) sign-up as well as well as a decision about enrollment in the new Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program were required. Iowa State University (ISU) Extension responded by providing new SURE and ACRE on-line calculators and new publications, newsletters, webinars and webcasts. Statewide, Extension educators conducted more than 100 meetings, workshops, seminars and conferences with over 6,000 in attendance. Links on ISU Extension’s web sites had more than 5,000 unique visitors monthly. Webinars and webcasts were recorded to help disseminate complex farm program information and compliment more traditional methods of educational delivery. As a result, thousand of operators, landowners and other agribusiness professionals across Iowa and the nation benefited from these web-based efforts.
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Articles, citations, reports, websites, and multimedia resources focused on rangeland ecology, management, restoration, and other issues on American rangelands.