The county agent in transition

Abstract

The 1960 U. S. D. A. Agricultural Census showed that three per cent of the farms produced 30 per cent of the total farm business. The 45 per cent largest American commercial farms did well over 90 per cent of the farming business. To look at it from another angle, 55 per cent of the farms only produced ten per cent of the farm products. One more statistic of interest is that the 35 per cent smallest farms only produced four per cent of the value of farm sales. The point I am trying to make in all these figures is the tremendous change which has occurred in agriculture, most of it since the Second World War. Where does our Extension Service stand in this drastically changing picture, and where will it stand in the future? This paper is prepared to propose a system which might be adapted by the Montana Extension Service to better fill the needs of not only the Rural population but also the urban people who are now demanding more and more of the services of this organization.