Caledonia Argus

Ag educator needed, farmers say

Posted: 2/10/04

By Shannon McKinney
Argus News Reporter

Several members of the agriculture community appeared before Houston County commissioners Tuesday, Feb. 2 to protest the elimination of the position of agriculture extension educator.

The cut came in December when the board was given the opportunity to share an extension educator with Winona and Fillmore Counties, but chose not to because one of those counties would not fund its portion of the position.

Fred Arnold of Spring Grove spoke to the board about the cut. ìThe way I look at it, the system kind of broke down. In the space of one year, we went from a full time educator, to a half time to zero,î he said.

Arnold, who is on the extension committee, said he and others were a little concerned when Bill Halfman resigned in 2003. Neil Broadwater served as the agriculture educator on a half-time basis. ìWe thought maybe we had our cut,î he said of the reduction. Because of state budget cuts last year, many things were getting cut.

In December, Arnold was told that the position might be cut further to one third. The recommendation of the extension committee at the time was to support the position at one third time. ìI asked what I felt was a key question, ëAre both commissioners (who were on the committee) going to support the recommendation?í The answer I got was yes,î said Arnold.

Arnold noted that on the day commissioners voted to not have an agriculture educator, one of those commissioners was gone and the other did not support the committeeís recommendation.

ìWe gave our input when we thought it was time to give our input. It bothered me to read the quote in the paper that they (commissioners) hadnít heard a bunch of complaints from farmers. We do care and it makes a lot of difference,î he explained.

Arnold added, ìI didnít think I was suppose to be here (at the county board meeting). I thought I dealt with that at the extension committee meetings.î

Justification for educator

Arnold explained that the county needs an agriculture extension educator.

In his own personal experience, he was able to use the unbiased advice of the educator when remodeling one of his barns. He was initially told by other estimates that it would cost $1.5 million to remodel, but the extension educator found a way to do it for much less.

He pointed out that the impact of the farm industry in Houston County benefits everyone financially. ìI think the multiplier for expenses in a community is seven. The dairy portion of my farm grosses $300,000, so the economic impact is a little bit in excess of $2 million a year. Without the research base of the extension educator, I wouldnít be sitting here today. That farm as a dairy contribution would be gone,î he said.

Arnold also noted that the dairy farming industry is decreasing in Minnesota. In 1985, there were 19,500 farms compared to 9,400 in 2002. Milk production in 1985 was at 11,800 pounds per cow per year compared to the average in 2002 of 17,500 pounds. The total milk production level in 2002 was 165 million pounds of milk per year compared to 230 million in 1985. ìIím afraid that if you do not have the agriculture educator here to provide the information we need or to get us to someone who does, you will accelerate the decline of the dairy industry,î he said.

Farmers have been told to get their questions answered on the internet in the absence of an agriculture educator. This does not always work, said Arnold. ìMy farm is different than what anybody else is doing. They can put me in touch but I canít find the web sites on my own. I have tried. There are too many blasted times that I receive, ëconnection failed.íî

Budget cuts force ag cut

Commissioner Dave Corcoran explained the recent history of the extension office. In 1999 there were three full time positions: nutrition; agriculture; and 4-H educators, which cost the county $42,000. The county paid 33 percent of the position while the university paid the rest. ìIt was going along very well,î he said.

Then, in 2002, the county signed a three year contract with the extension office for a full time 4-H person, and a .5 ag person, which cost the county $68,000. The 4-H educator cost $42,000, while the county paid $23,950 for the 4-H position, which represented 60 percent of the cost. The extension paid 40 percent of that cost.

In 2003, responding to budget cuts, the Minnesota extension voided the three year contract and offered a one year contract for a full time 4-H person, and a one third ag educator for the cost of $76,000. Commissioners were told that after next year, the price tag for those positions would increase to $97,000.

There were a few problems with the proposal, said Corcoran. Commissioners received the proposal only a few weeks before they had to act on it. Also, in order to get the one third ag educator, two other counties needed to agree to share the same person. The night before the board meeting, Corcoran said he received word that at least one of the two counties did not want to take part in sharing the position because it was too much money.

He said, ìOne county couldnít afford it, so we just threw in the towel on the whole deal.î

Corcoran said he felt it was getting too expensive because they were getting fewer services but paying more money.

Corcoran doesnít blame Minnesota Extension for the short notice because they did not know what their budget would be until after the legislature ended its session in June. ìThey only had a month to come up with something,î he said.

He added, ìThey did not have a very good plan. They basically put us in a box.î

With the plan as it stands, the county receives the services of a full time 4-H person for $59,000, which include health and dental benefits and mileage costs. With the additional cost of a full time secretary, rent and other supplies the total cost for the county is $120,000. Comparatively, in 1999 with three full time positions, a full time secretary and building supplies, the county paid $98,000.

If the county wanted to hire a full time ag technician on its own, it would have cost an additional $72,000. An ag educator would have cost $82,000.

Planning for the future

Commissioners were questioned about its plans for next year.

Corcoran noted that he had heard the legislature might offer a challenge grant for counties to apply for funds to help with paying for extension services.

Joe Schieber of Caledonia commented, ìHow much money do we pay in taxes? Canít we get a little bit back? Weíre still an agricultural county. Every day things change. We need to have a specialist,î he said.

He added, ìI donít think we should give up on the future. We need to keep working at it.î

Commissioner Kevin Kelleher said he does not like when the state makes money available through grants. ìItís a bureaucratic nightmare. The big counties can hire someone to write for the grants, while the smaller counties canít and therefore always get the shaft,î he said.

Arnold explained that they really need one-on-one attention.

He related the response he received when he called the regional office for assistance. ìI was told that ëWeíre really, at this point, not working with individual farmers. Weíre suppose to be designing meetings and programs.í The problem is who do we have that can figure out what kind of programs we can ask for?î

Kelleher explained that the cuts happened simply because of lack of money. ìIt isnít as though we have the free will as the board we can say weíll use your property tax (to fund the position). We have a levy limit, which the state does not have, by the way. The legislature decided that we are not responsible enough with our money.î

Arnold asked if the board could override the levy limits, to which Kelleher responded in the negative.

Schieber suggested, ìMaybe someone locally could be here a day or two [as an ag educator].î

Corcoran responded, ìThe thing is that the person has to be their employee before they (the extension) pass information onto them.î

Mike Ingvalson of Caledonia noted that the services of Bill Halfman were utilized to help coordinate the Houston County round table discussion. ìIt was a self-run, very viable group. Typical attendance was between 35 to 50 people. Now that heís gone, we dropped the issue. He was the backbone. We brought ideas and he put things together. It was all county driven,î he said.

An audience member suggested sharing a private person with a private entity like the Farmerís Elevator.

Corcoran noted that some counties have done that.

The county board intends to wait and see what the legislature does next year for offering grants for extension positions. They also hope to receive a better offer from the Minnesota Extension in July this year.

Extension office has numbers

The extension office has a list of 20 numbers available to call for questions on different subjects.

The list includes phone numbers and internet sites.

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