Grundy County extension celebrates 100 years

During the Grundy County Fair last week, the county’s Iowa State University Extension Office marked its 100-year anniversary. County 4-H and Youth Coordinator Andrea Traeger caught up with The Grundy Register on Tuesday to discuss the history of the extension office, its mission and its future.
           
Regional Extension Director Bill Arndorfer, who serves Grundy, Butler, spoke during Family Fun night at the fair last Wednesday, briefly described the history of extension offices: President Lincoln first established land grant universities, which provided education in fields such as agriculture and mechanical arts, during the Civil War, and the idea of extensions was first hatched in Iowa in 1903 when farmers in Sioux County worked with ISU to improve the quality of seed corn.
           
“The goal was to get some resources in the counties to help families that were farming, and it also did a lot with home economy stuff with women for things like baking, canning and other things,” Traeger said. 
 
Read more in this week's Grundy Register.