Texas Digital Diagnostics System

Get help from the Texas Agricultural Extension Service with just a click of the camera. That's right. Now agricultural producers as well as urban homeowners can get an answer to their problems in a matter of minutes. It's as easy as
1, 2, 3

1. Ask your County Extension Agent to take a digital picture of the problem.

Flower

He/she will take several pictures from different angles and distances .

Office

2. Your County Extension Agent can then go to the TDD web site and submit your "virtual sample". The county agent submits an online form over the World Wide Web. The information form includes the client's name, address, city and county as well as email, phone and fax number. It also contains supporting information to assist diagnosticians in identifying the problem and making remedial recommendations.

3. Diagnosticians, who will be scientists with the Texas Agricultral Extension Service, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Texas A&M University or other universities in Texas or another state, will receive your "sample" and "analyze" it and send an evaluation back to your county agent. Your county agent will then relay the information back to you.

Advantages: Saves time and money. The diagnostician can make a"virtual ranch visit" in a matter of minutes instead of days. The producer receives vital information that could save crops when a fast-moving disease can wipeout a harvest. This program will also give some comfort to urban individuals, particularly those home gardeners with an unknown plant disease or the typical homeowner or commercial nurserymen who need help identifying an insect ordisease.

The program is currently a 42 county pilot project. Those counties participating are: Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, Nueces, Victoria, Karnes, Atascosa, Bexar, Jefferson, Harris, Fort Bend, Comal, Hays, Travis, Gillespie, Bell, Schleicher, McLennan, Tom Green, Cherokee, Bosque, Comanche, Glasscock, Midland, Smith, Taylor, Martin, Harrison, Tarrant, Palo Pinto, Dawson, Denton, Terry, Grayson, Archer, Lubbock, Wichita, Hall, Deaf Smith, Gray, Moore and El Paso.

The program is currently a free service, but could become a fee-based offering for some future applications. It will be implemented in the areas of plant identification, plant diseases, insects and their damages, animal health and nutrition, and brush and weed management.

The Texas Digital Diagnostic System is sponsored by the Texas Agricutural Extension Service of the Texas A&M University Agriculture Program through
The Center for GrazinglandsandRanch Management.

Texas A&M units participating in the program include the departmentsof Animal Science, Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Rangeland Ecology and Management, Forestry Science, Soil and Crop Science, Recreation Parks and Tourism Sciences, Horticultural Sciences, Poultry Science, Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab, Plant Pathologyand Entomology and Extension Information Technology.

For more information on how to use the The Texas Digital Diagnostic System, contact the Center for Grazinglands and Ranch Managementat 1-888-799-4442.

News Release : New Digital Diagnostics Program to Aid Both Ag Producers and Urban Indiviuals - January 17, 2001