Extension – It’s more than 4-H!

By Jeramy McNeely

After some conversations with my advisory committee and other community members, the fact that most people don’t realize what Extension is or the services we provide has become a prevalent issue in my mind.  Personally, I was never in 4-H and really had no clue what the Extension Agent did in my county until I applied for my first Extension job.  So I understand the lack of knowledge.  If you don’t know what we do, you don’t know whether you can utilize us or not.  So the lightbulb has gone off and it is my life’s mission during my tenure that everybody knows what Extension can do for them. 

Now everybody knows (or at least I hope everybody knows) that we are in charge of the 4-H programming in the county.  We currently have 68 members and 15 leaders.  What you may or may not know is the information and experts that we have on the following topics: 

·       Agriculture

·       Crops & Farm Management

·       Livestock

·       Energy – saving money, new energy methods, etc

·       Home, Family & Finances

·       Family, Housing, Personal Finances

·       Work & Career

·       Insects

·       Exotic (Non-established in Colorado)

·       Field & Forage Crop, Trees, Shrubs & Turfgrass

·       Fruit, Flower & Vegetable Garden

·       General Interest Subjects, Household, Stinging & Biting, Pest Management & Control

·       Natural Resources

·       Range, Native Plants, Water & Wildlife

·       Wildfire & Forestry

·       Nutrition, Food Safety & Health

·       Foodborne Illness, Food Preparation, Preservation, & Storage

·       Food Safety & Local Foods, Foods & Nutrients, Food & Nutrition Labeling/Information

·       High Risk & Special Audiences

·       High Altitude Preparation

·       Eating Patterns, Weight Management, Disease Management

·       Women’s Health, Infant & Child Health

·       Water

·       Home & Garden, Irrigation

·       Yard & Garden

·       Gardening Basics, Diseases, Insects

·       Flowers, Fruits, Vegetables, Trees, Shrubs & Yards

·       GardenNotes (Master Gardener Publications)

·       PlantTalk Colorado^TM

This is not all!  We can send in weed, plant, soil, and water samples.  We can help with weed identification.  We’re even doing local research on financing for farmers and ranchers and finding marketing strategies for all-natural beef.  I’m currently working with other county agencies to put together a drug awareness community event.  One time I even helped eradicate a bull snake from someone’s engine!  I’m not certain that was showing my expertise, but we do try to help!

I truly believe that we can help anybody with anything.  I’m going to try and be more proactive getting information out, talking to people, building an email blaster, and whatever else I can think of to let you know what we know. 

If you would like to be included in our email lists, please give us a call and we will talk about what information you would like to receive.

As always, please call or stop in and try us out!  We are here to serve and take a lot of pride in doing so!  Thank you.