CHANGING ROLES AND RELATIONSHIPS OF CONSULTANTS AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION

Marvin D. Kauffman

The extension service has experienced significant cut backs in funding over the last number of years. Some county offices have had to almost close down. In the past there was one county agent for each county responsible for either agronomic crops or vegetable crops, ETC.. Now, most of the county agents are area agents and may cover three or more counties. In some cases, the agents may be ask to cover more crops then they did in the past. At the extension specialist level, many of the specialists have had to expand the number of crops that they cover. The county agents and the specialists roles are shifting more to an educator and there is less and less time for "hands on" diagnostic and one on one work. There is no time for on farm visits and diagnostic work. This has opened the door for the consultant to fill this void.

There are at least three areas in which the consultant and the extension personnel can work together for the good of all.

1. Dr. John Hart (OSU Extension Soils Specialist) say the consultant can be a "Multiplier". The consultant can a primary recipient, along with the county agents, of the latest information from the university research and specialist personnel. The consultant can use this information to create a

service and in this way pass this information on to the grower or he or she can just pass the information on if no service can be developed.

2. The consultant can be a sounding board in relation to kind of research that is needed and what should be included in the research project. How many of you have read a paper presenting some research that had been done and thought, "I could develop a program from this research if they would have collected just one more set of data or collected the data in a slightly different way?"? Consultants have a lot of hands on experience so they have a good understand what data is needed to apply the research to the field.

3. The consultant can contract with the university personnel to do the field work for the research project. At times, this may allow research to be done that would not get done any other way. The consultant has contacts where research plots can be established and in some cases this gets the

client involved in the research as well. The consultant can win in at least two areas. These two area are, the income stream that the contract research work generates and that doing the research puts the consultant on the inside track in getting the information generated from the research which makes the consultant the expert in this particular area. If the research is planned well, when the research is completed, the consultant has a program he or she can offer. An example of this is the work that I did with Dr. John Hart to develop a presidedress nitrogen test (PSNT) for sweet corn. This was a two year study. The results of this research lead to a service that I am able to offer to my clients. In some cases, I may be able to develop some new clients because of this new service.

I have found that working with the extension and research personnel at Oregon State U. has been very beneficial to me and I hope that I have been some help to them. Cooperation has been a win-win situation for me.