UPDATE: Northwest Iowa — Nearly every county in Iowa has had an extension presence for 100 years. And that’s being celebrated this year by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach personnel, volunteers, and friends of extension.
We had a chance to visit with Assistant Vice President for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Bob Dodds about the history of extension recently. Dodds says that the first steps toward what would eventually become the extension service were taken by none other than President Abraham Lincoln.
He says that the next step was actually made by farmers up here in our area — northwest Iowa — Hull, to be exact.
Dodds says Iowa later became the model for cooperative extension work, which was adopted nationwide 11 years later — all from those little “seeds” planted by President Lincoln, those Hull farmers, and Iowa State researchers.
Dodds tells us what extension does.
He tells us his thoughts on where extension is headed in the future.
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Original story posted Jul 24th, 2018 at 4:17 p.m.:
Primghar, Iowa — While the extension idea got its start in Iowa in Sioux County 115 years ago in 1903, the idea of each county having an extension presence was started in 1912. And by 1918, nearly all the counties had their own extension agent.
That’s what’s being celebrated this Wednesday night, July 25th, at the O’Brien County Fair in Primghar. The Assistant Vice President for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Bob Dodds tells us what’s planned.
Dodds will be presenting the plaque to O’Brien County Extension this Wednesday night.
Extension as a concept can really trace its roots back to northwest Iowa. After Sioux County farmers in the Hull area asked experts at Iowa State to help them with some new technology, the concept of extension work was born. Dodds says Iowa later became the model for cooperative extension work, which was adopted nationwide 11 years later.
