The thing that best helped me communicate with these folks is that I didn't completely talk money with them. From the world's largest persimmon tree to the square-stemmed vervain weeds, Zipperer delighted in showing people unique things about their farms and woodlands. As the new East District program development coordinator for agriculture and natural resources, he's still communicating. I had farmers as clients, and now I have agents as clients. Farmers have training needs.
Agents have training needs.
If you want to be a stomp-down good county agent in your area, it's critical to know the research and the people who can think outside the box. An agent in a cotton county has to align himself with the cotton team in Georgia and with specialists and researchers beyond the state line. If we don't go that extra step, we can become insignificant. The farmer already knows a lot of what we know. If you're beat up and in a wheelchair, you can still function as a county agent if you write a column.