Myers Fills York Dairy Extension Role JOYCE BUPP York Co. Correspondent YORK (York Co.) By the end of the month of January. lory Myers planned to have visited nearly half of York County’s 126 dairy farms. But continuing weeks of bad weather snarled the dairy extension agent’s progress in meeting his goal. Jerry Myers joined the York Agricultural Extension staff as dairy agent on November IS. Hav ing paid calls on more than .10 milk producers during his first se veral weeks of work, Myers hopes for improved weather during the next several weeks to catch up on his self-imposed goal of personal ly visiting every York County dairy farm. “A lot of our upcoming pro gram development is still in the planning stages,” says the dairy agent “But I do want to meet as many farmers as possible. People appreciate getting to know the person behind the position; they’re more likely to call if they have a question or a problem. Having worked in extension be fore, I know how important it is to know the fanners. “The list of things that we could to is never ending,” Myers says of extension owrk, then emphasiz ing, “But I wanted to have visited SO farms by the end of January.” He sees escalating regulations as being the biggest challenge fac ed by farmers. “As agriculture becomes more limited in numbers, so does our legislative voice. We get so busy just doing what has to be done. Agriculture’s voice must be heard.” Myers insists. Even as a teenager growing up on his family’s farm, Myers re members having a sense that he would make career choices based on people-oriented job opportuni ties. “l always thought I’d be doing something woridng with people,” relates Jerry Myers. "Other people always gave me support for think ing in that direction.” Myers and his sister and bro Ryder supp thers were the third generation on the family dairy farm near West minster, Maryland. As they grew up, the Myers siblings were all quite successful in showing their registered Holstein cattle and in 4-H showmanship, judging, and record book activities. Keeping the people-oriented job future in mind, Jerry earned his degree in ag extension educa tion at the University of Maryland. Following graduation, he worked for two years as a Northeast field 'representative for the national Brown Swiss and Ayrshire cattle organizations. “I put in lots of road time,” he recalls of the position in which he worked with members of the two breed groups in 10 states across the middle Atlantic and New Eng land areas. Returning to school for a Mas ter’s degree, Myers began his graduate studies at the School For International Training at Brattle boro, Vermont. He found the small, personalized setting, with between 100-200 students, many of them foreign students pursuing English studies, to be interesting, enlightening and a lot of fun. “A requirement of my program in International Administration, specializing in advising and train ing, was to do an internship. I thought it would be interesting to evaluate agriculture at an interna tional level,” he explains. So, after his six months of on campus studies, Jerry Myers took a three-week “crash” course in Spanish, then packed his bags to spend the next eight months in Colombia, South America. His as signment was with the national Brown Swiss association, classi fying cattle, teaching dairy farm owners how to use sire summary information in mating programs and various advisory and training programs that dovetailed with his graduate program. Myers was even asked to judge several shows during his stay, the first only about six weeks after his arrival. Though his Spanish, in cluding the numerous cow des York County dairy extension agent Jerry Myers makes friends with a calf while on a farm visit. criptive terms, was still rather halting, Myers managed to an nounce his reasons for each class with no major language embar rassments. “It was nice to be able to speak without having to resort to the use of an interpreter,” he says in retro spect of his sudden immersion in to having to manage public speak ing in a foreign language. Living in Colombia also em phasized to Myers that people around the world are really very much the same. Too often, he be lieves. the media focuses only on extremes in other countries, when ALSO AVAILABLE NtKFER THAT JSBv worn QUIT. V THE CHEAPEST THING TO GIVE YOUR COWS... WATER FOR MORE MILK!!! dive your cow* lots qf water from Ritchie Fountain* Water I* Cheaper Than Feed! Recapping %urßHchie Fountains Makes Sense.. And Saves Money! 3 Cattle Fountain Omr**" Ug mp*» tn amal pern Wte«nk*no 100 hate MNo U39S IT*l2lV4*«M'Mgh CtoeMc (U«W CSA tfpTOMd) or Cat in reality, normal daily family lives are very similar to those of Americans. After concluding his graduate program, Jerry returned home for six months to help with running the home dairy and crops opera tion while his older brother, Jason, was relocating his herd from the family farm to begin his own dairy operation. During the summer of 1984, Myers was asked to lead a national 4-H youth lour to The Nether lands. For six months after his col lege graduation, he had lived in Norway as a participant in the 2AC liiiM-Puipow Fountain Utoancalwt ihacp and goat* Mia forte* Malt anal Isa or hncatee Utatrs up to 40 cteia/tOO catwa FMNo U39S Kr«3