Apr 7, 2007

Cornell Cooperative Extension Adopts A Team Approach To Survive

Eric Brown is a huge fan of Cornell Cooperative Extension.

CCE supplies Brown – owner of Orchard Dale Fruit Farms in Waterport, N.Y. – with the critical information he needs to run a diversified farming operation. New York’s Extension system is so good that Brown has heard growers from other states express their envy.

“Other regions of the country don’t have near the same opportunities,” he said. “Growers in New York don’t realize what they have. You aren’t going to get more bang for your buck from anything other than the Extension model.”

The system isn’t perfect, of course. It needs to be more efficient, yet more responsive to customer needs. The industry it serves could use some changes as well. Farmers aren’t always quick to adjust to new techniques and technologies.

“I’m not near as electronically adept as I should be,” Brown said, but “I’m further ahead than a lot of people. The industry has a long way to go.”

As in other states, New York’s Extension system is in a period of transition. Gone are the days when every county had a fruit or vegetable agent who could regularly visit neighboring farms. Decreased funding has led to a consolidation of services. New technologies have made communication more efficient, but they’ve taken away the personal touch Extension used to have.

Funding

Cornell Cooperative Extension’s statewide budget in 2005 was more than $90 million, according to Chris Watkins, CCE’s associate director.

County governments contributed the largest portion of the budget: 28.6 percent. The state government was close behind, with 28.4 percent. The federal contribution was 10.7 percent. Grants and contracts totaled 22.2 percent, and Extension association income supplied the rest, according to CCE.

Federal funding has been steady but flat during the last 20 years – it hasn’t kept up with inflation. Essentially, the federal contribution is half of what it was two decades ago. The state government has done a better job keeping up with inflation, but county governments have been forced to fill much of the gap – and make tough choices about which programs to maintain, Watkins said.

Other sources of funding have been tapped over the years. A large number of Extension educators have been successful at getting grant money. Commodity groups also contribute. The formation of the New York Farm Viability Institute, a producer-driven organization, has played an increasing role in funding applied research, Watkins said.

“As a system, we have to be very nimble,” he said. “We’re constantly looking to see how we can build on our efforts.”

Regions

CCE has dealt with its changing circumstances by adopting a regional approach. Regional teams, such as the Lake Ontario Fruit Team and Cornell Vegetable Program, serve multiple counties, allowing each county to use its resources more efficiently. County Extension directors manage the teams, but Cornell University, New York’s land-grant institution, ties everything together, Watkins said.

CCE employs more than 500 professional educators across the state, who work in partnership with 170 faculty and staff members at the university and more than 40,000 volunteers throughout the system, according to Cornell.

For Dembroski Orchards, a 300-acre apple orchard in Ulster County, Extension is the main source of information about new regulations and new practices. When the orchard suffered weather-related crop losses in 2000, the local and state Extension offices helped the owners secure funding to keep the operation going, said Helene Dembroski.

“They do research critical to our area, because it is done in our area,” she said.

Extension’s only real weakness is that local researchers are so busy running meetings and writing grants they have little time to help growers directly.

“Their time to do research is very limited,” Dembroski said. “They’re not in the field as much as they should be.”

Much of that has to do with funding, which has gone down significantly. Commercial companies can fill the research gap, but their data could be biased, she said.

Brown, owner of Orchard Dale Fruit Farms, agreed with her assessment. There are more commercial consultants than there were 20 or 30 years ago, but Extension stands apart because it’s impartial. When farmers go to government entities for requests, they can back up the requests with unbiased information from a respected third party. That’s one of the system’s strengths, he said.

Dembroski’s farm would be willing to pay for Extension services – anything to help the local industry survive, she said.

“This is information we have to have.”

Ulster County is part of a five-county regional fruit program, said Dave Rosenberger, a researcher at Cornell’s Hudson Valley laboratory, a branch of the New York State Experiment Station in Geneva.

Rosenberger has seen a major change in Extension’s relationship with the state’s produce growers. Educators have become specialized as information has become specialized. At the same time, the system is dealing with shrinking financial support at all levels. It’s trying to do the same or more with less money. Those factors have been the impetus for CCE’s regional consolidation.

Several years ago, five county Extension associations in the Hudson Valley came together and developed a plan to share responsibilities for their fruit programs. Similar mergers have happened in other areas of the state, Rosenberger said.

In order to be more efficient with their time, agents are using new technologies to reach the maximum number of growers. On-farm visits still take place, but are usually initiated by growers asking for help, the researcher said.

Rosenberger works with tree-fruit growers in his region. His counterparts cover the same area, but work with other crops like berries and grapes. Responsibilities are divided by commodity. An agent is no longer a jack-of-all-trades, he said.

Rosenberger shares a building with a horticulturist, an entomologist and a pathologist. They take information from the field, share it with each other or pass it on to researchers at Cornell. In turn, Cornell researchers send field agents information, and the agents pass it on to farmers.

The Hudson Valley team supplements its funding through grants and meeting and enrollment fees. Extension teams will continue to provide quality educational programming for growers, but the specific direction those efforts take will be a function of economics, Rosenberger said.

“Organizations in other states have been cut significantly,” he said. “What happens here depends on financial support.”

In Baldwinsville, Extension expertise has helped Brian and Mark Reeves navigate their way through land-use issues. The brothers are in the middle of a dispute with the state department of transportation, which wants to widen a highway that goes through their vegetable farm. The project would take out perennial crops on good farmland, but the local land-use agent helped Brian work out appraisal budgets so he could plead his case to the transportation department. He’s also gotten help learning about New York’s purchase of development rights programs, he said.

As far as production goes, budget cuts have diminished the presence of fruit and vegetable agents in his county, so Brian increasingly relies on information from a distance, such as newsletters.

“When I was a kid, every county had two or three agents,” he said. “The team concept is taking over.”

Even though there are fewer agents, their qualifications haven’t dropped at all. They still give first-rate answers, Brian said.

Commodities

The state’s apple industry has an outstanding relationship with CCE, said Jim Allen, president of the New York Apple Association. The association helps shore up CCE’s inadequate funding by supporting fruit schools throughout the state and collecting money that goes back to Cornell for apple research, Allen said.

CCE keeps vegetable growers up to date in many subjects, including research on variety performance, pesticide performance, cultural practices and IPM, said Jeff Kubecka, executive secretary of the New York State Vegetable Growers Association.

New York’s berry growers have a good working relationship with the berry specialists at Cornell, though some work with commercial consultants or get information from other sources. Extension is an important piece of the puzzle, but it’s not the only piece, said Jim Altemus, executive secretary of New York State Berry Growers.

Most berry agents in New York handle other fruit and vegetable crops as well. Ideally, berry growers would like to see a handful of specialists focus exclusively on their needs, Altemus said.

The berry association has shouldered some of CCE’s financial load by disseminating information to growers, funding programs and contributing to research funds. The association gets feedback from its members and Extension personnel to find the areas where research funds are needed most, he said.

The future

Despite CCE’s funding struggles, it’s doing some exciting things for New York agriculture. Video conferencing systems have been set up throughout the state, so growers don’t have to travel as far to meet, said Watkins, CCE’s associate director.

Cornell is putting more resources into New York’s thriving grape industry. The university recently hired a wine microbiologist, viticulturist and wine chemist.

Some CCE educators have developed national and international reputations, and the lure of larger salaries outside Extension is hard to resist. Still, Cornell has managed to keep most of its educators around. Salary isn’t the only thing that drives them, Watkins said.

Another problem is finding the next generation of educators. American students are not entering the agriculture field in numbers the industry would like.

“We’ll continue to fill positions, but it’s difficult,” Watkins said. “The whole industry is getting older.”