Three polling places will be open around Polk County Nov. 16 to allow residents to vote for or against the continuation of a 15-cent assessment on fertilizer and commercial feed.
Polk County Extension Director John Vining said the Nickels for Know-How assessment has been around for 60 years, which has had a trickle-down effect.
“Polk County has not been given monies directly, but it has indirectly been supported through the monies raised,” Vining said.
Some of the examples of benefits the local community has seen, he said, include development of 4-H livestock programs and educational materials, which local 4-H youth have used; creation of new forage grazing strategies to improve conversion of grass to beef; development of birth control for fire ants and sponsoring of statewide workshops for high school vocational agriculture teachers.
Voters can cast their vote in Polk County at Green Creek Farm Supply, Red Mountain Trading Post in Sunny View and the Polk County Extension Center in Columbus.
The 15-cent assessment is applied to each ton of fertilizer and animal feed produced in North Carolina. The N.C. Department of Agriculture collects the monies from the manufacturers of feed and fertilizer. The manufacturers build the extra 15 cents per ton into the price of their products.
The program is a self-assessed, statewide check-off that supports agricultural research, extension and teaching programs in the college of agriculture and life sciences (CALS) at N.C. State University.
“Virtually every significant advancement in agriculture in the last 60 years has received Nickels funding at some point,” said CALS Dean Johnny C. Wynne. “Without Nickels, our college would not be able to serve the citizens of North Carolina as well as we do.”
The Nickels check-off has been voted on every six years and has passed in the 13 previous referenda by an average 90-percent favorable vote. Nickels funds have helped CALS to establish more than 550 endowments valued at more than $100 million. Those endowments provide $900,000 in scholarships for 800 CALS undergraduate students. In addition, these endowments support faculty efforts, county extension programs, commodity research efforts and other programs in CALS.