Jim Paul reports that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has launched a virtual or county agent named The Farm Gate. “It’s really nothing but the classic function of the extension service, which is to take research and interpret and apply it in the field,” said Scott Irwin, a UI agriculture professor who helped develop the blog. “It’s just using a new tool to do that — a virtual or digital county agent.”
I’ve known county agents who helped us on our family farm. They provide a form of continuing education for farm families. They probably saved us much money and helped turn those dollars into farm profits. I hope they can do the same over the Internet with a blog. I wonder how many farmers use a Tablet PC for their continuing education.