Celebrating 100 Years of University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension Service

Wisconsin Coopertive Extension History

The Morrill Act of 1862 endowed the University of Wisconsin to support instruction in agriculture and the mechanical arts and to establish an agricultural experiment station. In 1890, Professor S.M. Babcock demonstrated a quick and accurate way to test milk for butterfat. He refused to patent his invention for personal gain, but decided to share it freely with dairy farmers. The first agricultural experiment station was established in 1909 at Spooner, Wisconsin, on 403 acres of sandy loam soil. The first county agent, E.L. Luther, was hired to work as a county agriculturalist in Oneida County in 1912. In 1914, the Smith-Lever Act provided support from USDA for extension functions at the land grant institutions. This was the beginning of the three-way partnership of state, county, and federal governments, thus Cooperative Extension was born. In 1917, World War I turned Extension into a disaster force, with Emergency Food Agents hired to encourage more food production – crops, victory gardens, and improved milk and poultry production. In the 1920s many counties began to employ more agents to teach agriculture, nutrition, youth development and home economics. Important agricultural issues included eradicating bovine TB, farm management, transportation, storage and marketing, cooperatives, nutrition, health and welfare. During the 1930s erosion and pest control were critical concerns during the drought years of the depression. Extension encouraged planting windbreaks, woodlots, and planting alfalfa to replace more erosice and drought-intolerant crops. Extension helped with the rural electrification program, bringing federal loans for cooperative power lines to some 5, 500 farms in 1937 alone. In the 1940s extension run bureaus placed 172,200 people in canneries and on farms to replace farmers and workers who served in the military. Thousands of 4-Hers worked on war production projects or replaced farmers who went to war. The 1950s brought on the post war baby boom and new programs in child development, farmily relations, and home furnishings. 4-H membership rose during this time. Programs were added in community, economic, and natural resource development. Extension helped transform the sandy, dust storm ravaged wasteland of Central Wisconsin into an important vegetable raising and processing center. The 1960s brought on a federal war on poverty. Extension was enlisted to help fight the war with programs designed to assist women, minorities, elderly, and the disadvantaged. The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program began in 1968. Extension added programs in public policy – land use, agricultural production, dairy herd improvement, farm management, and marketing. In the 1970s Cooperative Extension programs focused on new priorities in farm and agribusiness management, human health and nutrition, small business and community economic development, as well as education for government and community leaders and families. In response to the farm crisis of the mid 1980s, Cooperative Extension launched the Strategies for Survival Program, with more than 100 agents working to help families suffering financial hardship and family stress. The last 20 years have seen significant changes in the way we communicate with clientele but the goal of Cooperative Extension has remained the same. We strive to improve the quality of life in Manitowoc County by serving as an educational resource dedicated to assisting people in making informed decisions through the facilitation of research-based knowledge.