Extension officer hangs up his hat
Aug. 27—GRANGEVILLE — In the nearly 40 years Jim Church has worked for county extension services, he has provided a conduit between some of the best university agricultural research and farmers and ranchers.
Church, 63, is retiring from the University of Idaho-Idaho County extension office and will begin overseeing the extension program for northern Idaho on an interim basis.
"The really neat thing about extension is, it isn't the same thing day after day," Church said during one of his last days on the job in Grangeville. He had just wrapped up his final Idaho County Fair and the small office inside the county courthouse was nearly bare, making room for his successor, Miranda Hazelbaker Small.
"What we do is provide noncredit education. We take information from the universities and bring it down to adults and 4-H kids.
"The clientele, they help determine what they learn," he said. "So it's different from a for-credit class."
Church accomplished this goal by setting up numerous advisory committees composed of ranchers and farmers who said they needed information about certain topics. Church would take their questions to experts at the University of Idaho and they would put together test trials that were usually conducted by cooperating farmers and ranchers on their property.
"So it was always different. It wasn't the same thing year after year and that's what keeps it fresh," he said.
Church grew up in a large ranching family in Fruitland, Idaho, and followed in the footsteps of two brothers who also made careers in extension services.
After graduating in animal sciences from the UI, Church taught an agricultural economics class at Castleford, Idaho, and then accepted a job as the Asotin County extension educator through Washington State University.
Four years later, the job in Grangeville opened up and he and his wife, Julie, who is a Grangeville native, jumped at the chance to move closer to family.
Some of the projects Church's advisory groups and test programs looked at included using low-quality forage, such as wheat and barley straw, for livestock feed.
The straw, which is usually plowed under the ground following harvest, was collected and treated with ammonia fertilizer and stored in an airtight environment to increase the level of protein and palatability.
There was a trace mineral study using graduate students who measured the low mineral levels in soil and forage.
"That can affect the health of animals going to feed lots if they're low on trace minerals," Church said.
The studies also included trying out 34 different varieties of alfalfa for what would grow best in this region as well as research into cover crop grazing. Church said the information from these studies was often shared with farmers, ranchers and other researchers throughout the region.
Even with the success of these on-farm experiments Church said what has given him the most satisfaction over the years "was being able to work with people and help people to see some of the work that we'd done. And that they had applied it and then they had success. To me, that's where the reward has been.
"The main satisfaction is working with people. This is a people business. And in extension, if you don't like working with people, it's the wrong career."
Church and his co-worker for 34 years, Susie Heckman, have built a strong 4-H program in Idaho County. Besides overseeing the annual county fair and the various livestock shows throughout the year, Church also has been a livestock judge for many other county fairs in the area.
Although Idaho County's 4-H program isn't the largest in the state, "it's grown over the years and so we're kind of proud of what happened.
"But the success of this over the years has been because of a great community and great volunteer leaders," Church said. "It doesn't happen without them. People here have been willing to step up and they don't get paid or anything. They just do it out of the kindness of their heart and the joy they get watching kids grow."
Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.
