When funds are available, I conduct on-farm demonstrations which have been tremendously successful. I encourage participating farmers to attend training meetings, field days, and to become active in their local commodity organizations. As I compare the county agent's job, the county agent serves as an advisor, resource person, and supervisor of the small farm assistant. The two major differences between us involve the type of clientele and the amount of contact that we have with the clientele. In most cases, the county agent works with the larger, full-time farmers in the county.
Farmers initiate the contacts with the county agents by visiting the office or by telephone calls.
The agent visits the farm at the request of the farmer, but does not make regularly scheduled visits and normally does not make follow-up visits. The agent is usually not involved in the entire farming operation. On the other hand, the small farm assistant works with a selected group of small, part-time, or limited resource farmers. The small farm assistant initiates most of the contacts with the farmer and makes regularly scheduled visits to the farm. I have noted several limiting resources to small farmers.