By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Teamwork, collaboration and specialization are what define The Ohio State University extension. These are aspects of the organization that recently retired OSU extension assistant director Steve Baertsche attributed to its success and saw as keys to shaping the future.

Baertsche, a native of Hardin County, was assistant director for 15 years. During that time, extension had been successful in aligning itself with the needs of its clients and he saw a bright future ahead. The technology and the science of agriculture and horticulture had challenged extension and with that challenge, extension specialists, educators and county educators had evolved, Baertsche said.
It used to be that the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center was more research and extension was more teaching.

“Now most of our state specialists have a significant research appointment along with their extension appointment,” Baertsche said. “They’re not only good extension specialists in terms of teachers and answering producer questions, but they have to be good scientists too, and that means that now we see many more joint appointments.

“Our research campus is primarily up in Wooster, about 90 miles northeast of Columbus (OSU’s main campus),” he said. “Those teams have been able to connect the campuses a little bit more. The ability of county educators and research and state extension faculty to work together more – that’s what I’m really proud of.”
Economic forces, changing food systems and size and scale issues have also dramatically changed the way extension does programs, Baertsche said.

“Many of our producers don’t go to the old standard county extension meetings as much, but they really like to receive their information via the Internet,” he said.

Baertsche was proud of such research tools as the Crop Observation and Recommendation Network (C.O.R.N.) newsletter, the OSU Extension Beef Team newsletter and the Ohio Ag Manager newsletter, along with programs ranging from aquaculture to Woodland Stewards, and the new Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist Program.

“The C.O.R.N. newsletter goes out every Monday afternoon following a teleconference call held by our agronomics crop team ... they all call in and discuss contemporary crop production problems, whether it is soil fertility issues or disease or insect pressure,” he said.

That newsletter has “hit a home run” with many of extension’s clientele. They have evaluated that the newsletter has a high economic impact on their operations.

“You know you’re being relevant when you hit upon some products like that,” Baertsche added.

As for extension’s future Baertsche said, “I think land grant institutions still are very viable, relevant source of unbiased information. I’m hopeful that we can continue to make that point so that state legislatures and county and federal funding can continue to support them or at least be the basis of their support.”
His future plans include taking a little time out to “recharge the batteries,” but he would like to work back into agriculture and would like to stay connected with Ohio ag.

This farm news was published in the April 23, 2008 issue of the Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.