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NE Kansas | You need to talk to people in other states that have county agents that have 4-5 counties. I applied for a job in Southern MN at a coop and was asked where I would go for information on something that I did not know agronomically. I answered by stating one of the people that I would go to is to a county agent. He told me that you do not go to extension for agronomic information. This was about 15 years ago. I have talked to farmers and they state that the county that the agent is located in is the main county and gets most of the agents time. The other counties don't get very much time. When I was a county agent, I got a lot of walk in traffic. I could spend hours just helping walk-ins. The state that I was a county agent mainly hired animal science majors. They did this because only animal science majors know how to shear sheep and dress calves for stock shows. In my district of 20 counties and ~40 ag agents, there was only 3 agronomists hired and two of us spent a lot of the spring time shearing sheep, hogs and making steers pretty. We did not have a lot of time to spend doing agronomic things. I guess that makes me versatile. That is the reason that farmers need to make there kids go to school in agriculture. It is kinda hard to send an agriculturist job overseas. I know that it is possible for a robot to walk fields, but I think that it is still a few years from that happening. Think of this way, they won't make a lot of money, but their jobs are safe. I work in an agriculture office that has only two people that have actually farmed and grew up on a farm. I think that agriculture (agronomy, animal science, range science can be taught) but a kid from a farm has a big advantage. Oh well for the diatribe. | |
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County Agent program.
