Since 1953, the popular gardening show "Backyard Farmer" has been providing research-based answers to gardening questions about insect pests, fruits and vegetables, turf to landscape design and much more.
As it keeps up with the times, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension program has made a splash on iTunes U and YouTube. Backyard Farmer consistently is in the Top 10 of the science category and No. 17 overall on iTunes U – a distribution system for everything from lectures to language lessons, films to labs, audio books to tours and a way to get educational content into the hands of students and others.
Brad Mills, Backyard Farmer producer, said the long-running program consistently shows up on iTunes U every Friday by 1 p.m. giving anyone access to watch the program, which regularly runs on NET1 Thursdays at 7 p.m. Central Time, from April through early September.
"People from Nebraska really miss watching the program when they move somewhere else," Mills said. "I receive a lot of thanks for posting it and for a lot of people it is a little slice of home."
In addition to being popular in iTunes U, the show also receives thousands of hits on its YouTube channel.
Mills started putting the programs on YouTube as a whim in 2007, but since that time, video downloads have hit nearly 600,000.
"Our online presence is something the university can be proud of," Mills said.
Backyard Farmer is a production of the University of Nebraska Educational Media and the Nebraska Educational Television Network.
"We have a great collaboration between the university and NET," Mills said. Next year will be the show's 60th season.
For more information about "Backyard Farmer" visit its website or like them on Facebook.
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/sns