UPDATE: UAEX Row Crop Text Message Service

By: Tommy Butts, Extension Weed Scientist and Jarrod Hardke, Rice Extension Agronomist 

First, thank you to all those who have signed up for our UAEX Extension Specialists Row Crop text messaging service over the past year. Your interest and support of this effort has made this outreach effort a huge success.

We have some changes and updates to notify you about regarding this service. Due to changes in cellular policies, we no longer can use the short code number (69922) as our phone number to sign up for the service and to send the messages from. However, we have been given a new local phone number to use [(501) 300-8883]! This does not in any way change how the service operates, it simply means the text messages will be coming from a different number now. If you had previously subscribed to the service, this change does not influence your subscription, you are still in our system, so no action is required on your part.

Also for 2021, we have added a new textword list to receive text message updates on irrigation practices and recommendations in Arkansas. To opt-in for updates from the irrigation specialists, please subscribe through the below process.

Further, if you have not previously subscribed to our text messaging service and would like to, please opt-in through the following process:

1. Text the number (501) 300-8883 with the following word to join that list:
   • Cotton
   • Fieldcorn (all one word)
   • Rice
   • Soil
   • Sorghum
   • Soybean
   • Weeds
   • Wheat
2. NEW for 2021:
   • Irrigation
3. Once you’ve sent the list word to (501) 300-8883, you should receive an automatic reply confirming your enrollment in the group (Fig. 1).
4. If you would like to join multiple lists, send separate text messages with each list word above to (501) 300-8883 (Fig. 2).
5. Reply STOP to cancel, HELP for help. Msg&data rates may apply. Terms & privacy: io/5eSz

We recommend saving (501) 300-8883 as a contact in your phone and deleting the 69922 number as a contact. If you ever have a question regarding a message sent, you can reply directly to the text message. The responses will only be visible to the Extension specialists, and we will reply on a one-on-one personal basis.

If you have any questions regarding the UAEX Row Crop Text Message Updates, please feel free to contact me (tbutts@uada.edu), and thank you for continuing to support the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Fig. 1. Screenshot of subscribing to the weeds text list within the UAEX Field Crop Text Messaging Service by texting "weeds" to (501) 300-8883. Several text lists are available and operate in the same fashion.

Fig. 2. Screenshot of subscribing to multiple text lists ("weeds" and "soybean") within the UAEX Field Crop Text Messaging Service by texting each list word separately to (501) 300-8883.