“Don’t take the Cooperative Extension Service for granted,” a farmer said at a recent event I attended. “Extension does so much for our community.”

It made me proud to be a Clark County agent.

Recently, I reflected on how great it is to get to do what I do.

I chose this career because extension meant so much to my family over the years.

You may not have ever heard about Cooperative Extension, and have no idea what we do in that office out in Industrial Park.

Let me give you an example of what we do and how we have worked with industrial hemp farmers.

“Hemp is happening,” Tom Keene, a University of Kentucky extension specialist, said at a recent agriculture and natural resource agent training I attended.

Without a doubt, there is a lot of excitement around this crop.

Acres have vastly increased in Kentucky and across the United States this past year.

In Clark and surrounding counties, we now have several processing companies working with farmers to produce the crop.

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture continues to work with farmers as well to work through all of the legal aspects of producing hemp.

Despite all of successes we have had with Industrial Hemp, the crop is not without its challenges.

As an Extension Agent, I get to work with farmers to address those challenges.

Industrial Hemp is still a new crop for Kentucky farmers.

However, the Cooperative Extension service is here not just to provide information.

That is what Google is for, right?

We are here to serve and assist in improving our community.

On a recent visit, one farmer was showing some of the “lessons” he had learned out in the field.

As an agent working with farmers, this is enjoyable to me.

I get to work with extension specialists and other professionals who, in my opinion, are some of the best in the nation, to share unbiased university-based research with farmers.

In turn, I get to learn from the farmers and share back with the specialists things that are working on their farms.

Ultimately, through this process, we get research findings and recommendations that help make agriculture even greater in Clark County and all of Kentucky.

And that leads to the greatest part of my job. I get to help you, my community.

As a closing thought, I want to echo what I heard that farmer say.

Don’t take the Cooperative Extension Service for granted.

In Clark County, you are blessed to have an excellent extension office.

From 4-H and youth development, family and consumer sciences, and agriculture and natural resources to horticulture, you have a great group of people here to serve you.

So, come by, call or email us to let us do just that.

David Davis (david.davis@uky.edu) is a Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service Agent for Clark County. Call the Clark County Cooperative Extension, 1400 Fortune Drive, at 744-4682.