Haldeman retires after 30 Extension years
£SBY LAUREL SCHAEFFER
■ Staff Correspondent
LEESPORT After thirty
years of “service, James
Haldeman, Berks County’s
Senior County Extension
Agent, is retiring. ,
Bom and raised on a farm
in Danboro, agriculture has
always remamed his calling.
Haldeman’s career with
the Cooperative Extension
Service began in Feburary
1950 when he was assigned to
Montgomery County. As an
assistant agent, he worked
mainly with 4-H clubs and m
agricultural engineering.
In less than four years,
however, he was reassigned
to become the county agent
for Berks County in October,
1953. He has been there ever
smce, working with farm
families and the many
Aproblems they have faced in
past twenty-seven years.
Haldeman has seen Berk’s
agriculture change rapidly
and has been instrumental in
'helping farm productivity
withm-the county increase as
farm numbers decreased.
Working through the
Extension Service, a
program established by the
U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Haldeman has
been the “grass roots con
tact” through which new
information and improved
farming practices have been
passed down from the state
universities to the farming
population.
It has been this role which
the county agent says he has
enjoyed most. “Working on
the production level with
farm families and seeing my
recommendations being put
to use with the resulting
increased productivity has
been the most enjoyable
aspect of my job,” he told
Lancaster Farming.
Haldeman accepted his
role with the Extension
Service after graduating
from Penn State, where he
majored in agronomy.
Before attending college he
spent 3%' years in the Air
Force as a fighter pilot.
During his hitch, he and his
wife Betty were married.
Over the years, the
Haldeman’s were blessed
with three children:
Kathleen, now residing m
California; Donald, who
operates a greenhouse and
vegetable farm at R 1
Leesport; and James Jr., an
assistant county agent in
York County.
Haldeman’s respon
sibilities in the Extension
office included office
management, field crops,
dairy, poultry, and
agricultural engineering. He
has also been involved in
increasing the cooperation in
educational programs with
surrounding county ex
tension offices as various
commoditiy organizations
have grown into multi
county associations.
This senior county agent
has seen his office staff
increase from four em
ployees to the present 15,
growing to meet the new
problems communities have
to face.
Today the Extension
service is involved in
community problems such
as resource development as
well as the traditional
educational responsibilities
earned out before.
“In more recent times,
county agents have been
able to more or less
specialize in various areas
where they had to be able to
field questions from all
areas m earlier years,”
Haldeman explained. Ex-
Uncaster Farming, Saturday, July 26, 1960—A21
Berks County Agent Jim Haldeman is retiring
after over 30 years of f service
tension work has become are less than 400 dairy farms
more complex, he added. in the county. Thirty years
Haldeman has seen 4-H ago there were three times
programs and enrollment that number. The number of
increase dramatically cows have decreased m that
throughout the county. This time span from ap
year he said he expects the proxunately 35,000 head to
county enrollment to reach somewhere less than 30,000
3,000 and keep growing. tdfaay. Li spite of this
In recent years, 4-H clubs decrease in dairymen and
have been started for low dairy cows, milk production
income members residing in has been continually in
urban areas of the county, creasing.”
Today the excension staff Today there are increased
has the equivalent of 3% full numbers of crop farmers in
time employees working Berks County, and there has
with 4-H programs alone. been heavy expansion m
Prior to 1974, the offices of swine and poultry industry
tne Berks County Extension m the last few years. The
Service had always been poultry expansion has
based m the city of Reading, mainly been m broiler
too inaccessible to farm production in the western
people, Haldeman stated, end of the county, Haldeman
But with the building of the added.
Berks County Agricultural The retiring agent pointed
Center, Haldeman’s office out farms in the area had
ttoo moved docor to the increased in size rapidly
farming community, following World War n but
making the Extension since have decreased to
Service’s job more efficient, about one-third the number,
and easier to administer. ‘?The farms today are more
“There has been closer specialized and investment
contact with farmers since has increased
then,” the county agent dramatically,” he noted,
remarked, “and more “However, the basic
farmers have become aware problems faced by farmers
of our services.” today haven’t changed.
Noting how much
agriculture has changed
smce he began his career,
Haldeman commented on
the changing but stable
dairy business m Berks Co.
“Today,” he began, “there
Economics is still the name
of the game.”
A major problem he sees
many farmers faced with
today is the labor shortage.
Finding competent and
affordable labor is a difficult
task, he said.
The gradual increase in
regulations affecting the
farming community does not
concern him, however.
“Most of the regulations
affecting farmers are not too
far out of line,” Haldeman
stated.
What does the future hold
in store for the Extension
service? Haldeman said he
believes that soon most
recommendations coming
from an Extension office will
be through computers. In
many cases the information
will flow directly to the
farm, he predicted.
When asked what the
future holds in store for the
retiring agent, Haldeman
just smiled, then commented
that there were no definite
plans yet but working with
his son’s greenhouse and
vegetable business was a
possibility. Most likely he
will catch-up on some fishing
or other recreation, he said,
as long as he can stay “out
from under his wife’s feet.”
One thing for certain he
will definitely be missed by
many farmers and other
agricultural people in Berks
County.