Have you ever found yourself trying to figure out how much hay to buy for the upcoming year? Are you confused about which estrous synchronization protocol to use?Are you having calving difficulty and a lot of sick calves?
Are winter feed costs eating up your profit and you could use some ideas on how to extend the grazing season and decrease winter feed costs?
Don’t know what the weeds in the pasture are or how to get rid of them? Do you need some suggestions of different grass varieties that don’t require a lot of irrigation?
Do you need help determining how much and when to apply fertilizer? Do you need help reading EPDs and trying to figure out which bull to buy?
Are you trying to figure how to get rid of those #x*$%!v@ pocket gophers and ground squirrels that are wreaking havoc on your alfalfa field?
Chances are if you are in the beef business, you have a lot of questions every day. You need advice. You need suggestions. You need help.
Help is never far away
If you haven’t experienced extension before reading this article, I hope you will become aware of the vast resources that are available at your fingertips.
Even if you know your local county extension educator or extension specialist, I hope this article encourages you to explore additional resources that are available through extension.
Abe’s promise 150 years ago
In an 1862 law signed by President Abraham Lincoln, the Morrill Land Grant College Act promised to extend the benefits of scientific research and education to “the people” by creation of the nation’s land-grant university system.
The vision: Education belongs to all our nation’s people – not just the rich or elite. The Morrill Act provided land grants to each state to fund a college specifically for advanced education in agriculture and mechanical arts.
This was critical in two regards. First, it was education for the common man “from the industrial classes” and, second, it was education in practical careers.
The Morrill Act opened up education to “blue collar” families and provided a scientific underpinning for agriculture and other practical careers.
The Morrill Act emphasized the science of agriculture, saying that it needed to be researched and studied. It led to the Hatch Act of 1887, which funded research (particularly agricultural research) at land-grant universities and later to the Smith-Lever Act in 1914, which established the Cooperative Extension System, an outreach of the land-grant universities.
This link between local communities and their state land-grant university was established to disseminate practical information to rural communities on subjects relating to agriculture, home economics and rural welfare – and gave people direct access to university resources.
These three acts produced a place for U.S. agriculture to do research, to train young minds and to disseminate new information to agriculture producers.
Because extension programs seek to identify and solve local problems by engaging local people, they also provide significant input to land-grant universities on what issues to research.
Extension: Taking the university to the people
Today, each state in the U.S. has a land-grant university with three major functions: Research, teaching and extension.
While land-grant universities are vital centers of teaching and research in many subjects, it is also important to take that knowledge off campus and put it to work in local communities, where it gets results.
In the January 2012 issue of Progressive Cattleman, Editor David Cooper, wrote “The cooperative extension systems that evolved from the Morrill Land-Use Act and the Smith-Lever Act have fueled agricultural higher education nationwide, click here to read the article.
You’ll fail to find anything like it around the globe. From experimental research done with international partners to county 4-H functions, the public investment into ag extension has yielded results. And circles of beef production have reaped many of the benefits.”
Helping beef producers
Extension offers programming in beef reproduction, breeding and genetics, herd health, management, nutrition, pastures/forages and more.
Extension delivers this information through field tours, workshops, hands-on training, access to extension publications, online resources and research results.
Extension education also includes one-on-one training, mentoring and advising for thousands of clientele each year.
This education is delivered at little or no cost to beef producers because of extension’s unique funding system of federal, state and county resources.
How to get help
Visit your local extension office: To find out where your extension office is located, Google “extension” along with your county name and state, or “land grant university” in your state, or click here to view a map of all of the state land-grant universities.
Or visit your local county courthouse. Chances are, you will find your local extension office there. You can also check your local phone book.
Extension: An educational partnership between 74 universities in the U.S., eXtension is an interactive learning environment delivering the best, most-researched knowledge from the best land-grant university minds across America.
Ask a question, research a topic or take learning lessons. EXtension provides objective and research-based information and learning opportunities for beef producers and others.
Look up hundreds of beef topics by clicking here. Need a question answered right away?
Click here to ask an extension expert a question. Many local county extension offices offer an “ask an expert” widget on their website, allowing a producer to ask the local extension educator a question as well.
Extension publications: Ask your local extension educator for a list of publications available in the local office.
Or go online to your local land-grant university extension page and search for “publications.” Another option is to search online for a topic of interest followed by site:edu. For example, if you are looking for different heifer synchronization options, search “heifer estrous synchronization site:edu” or “beef synchronization planner site:edu.”
Websites with a Web address ending in “edu” ensure you are receiving credible, research-based information on your topic of interest.
An example of a comprehensive beef extension publication is the Cow-Calf Management Guide and Cattle Producer’s Library.
This library is prepared by the Western Beef Resource Committee, a regional committee made up of extension educators and specialists, animal scientists and industry representatives from 12 Western states and universities and is revised annually.
Included are sections on quality assurance, nutrition, reproduction, range and pasture, animal health, management, marketing, finance, genetics and natural disasters. It is available in a printed handbook, on a CD-ROM or online.
Click here for more information.
The year 2012 marked the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act of 1862, the legislation that allowed for the creation of the nation’s land-grant colleges and universities.
I encourage you to visit your local extension office and take advantage of the vast amount of resources that are available to you. There is help available every day, every month and every year. 
PHOTO
Ranchers and land managers learn about photo monitoring during a plant ID and rangeland monitoring workshop in summer 2012. Photo courtesy of University of Idaho.
Sarah D. Baker
Livestock Extension Educator
University of Idaho
