Researching Professional Development Learning Task #5 What do my Constituents want? Nathan Johnson

My interviews with producers of the county have shown there to be a real split in terms of needs. This split basically comes down to the location of an individuals farm in the county. The eastern half of the county has suffered from excess moisture since 1993. For the most part poor production has been the mainstay, with a couple of average production years thrown in with poor prices. Getting ahead has been an impossible task.

Their needs from me were stated in the form of these questions: 1. Why am I still farming? 2. What would I do, farming is all I have done? 3. Do you know how long this farm has been in the family? 4. What is the best way to get out without incurring major tax ramifications? 5. Can you tell me what I should do?

Lots of hard questions with no easy answers. Extension has worked hard in this area to meet the needs of producers in this situation. A program that I have worked with is called Farm Wrap. It involves meeting individually with the farm family and then directing them to the right support businesses such as legal or accounting professionals. I find that most producers in this situation want answers right now so they can get on with the planning process.

Producers in the west half are of a completely different mindset. They too have suffered some production setbacks but not near what the east half has. A few producers told me that 1999 was one of their best years ever. Hard to imagine when you hear about the farm crisis taking place in the countryside. But I think the remark emphasizes how different each farms financial situation is. Developing a one-size fits all government program is about impossible.

Producers from the west half of the county are concerned about long-term research. Where is the University with variety, fertilization, and herbicide trials? We got caught short of having ample soybean varieties for our growing season when fusarium head blight became a problem. They dont want that to happen again. They want the University to be a step ahead, when planning for all possible changes.

The one comment that all producers expressed when talking about what they wanted from extension was; unbiased research. They wanted a place to turn to that had no company interests at heart. Just print the results of how each product faired against the competition.

-- Anonymous, February 15, 2000