By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH

Indiana Correspondent

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Approximately 850 agricultural extension professionals from across the country are expected to attend the annual National Assoc. of County Agricultural Agents convention in Fort Wayne this month.

This will be the first time in the more than 100-year history of the organization the event has been in Indiana. The Sept. 8-12 national professional improvement conference will be “an opportunity for extension educators to increase our professional development,” explained Ed Farris, educator for agriculture and natural resources for the Purdue University extension office in Huntington County.

“It’s also an opportunity to learn how we might enhance the things we’re doing. It’s a chance to have a network of people larger than Indiana that you can draw from when challenges come along.”

In addition to seminars and meetings at the Grand Wayne Convention Center in downtown Fort Wayne, the conference will also offer tours of farms and agribusinesses in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.

“It’s a great opportunity to showcase Indiana agriculture,” Farris said. “I’ve talked to some agents from across the country and they’re looking forward to coming to northeast Indiana. They’ve maybe traveled through Indiana, but never made any trips within the state.

“We’re looking forward to showing some of the specialty crops we grow in Indiana and showing some of the diversity we have.”

Conference organizers have 24 tours planned featuring a cross-section of Hoosier agriculture, including corn and soybeans, grapes and wine, organics, lumber, poultry, livestock, greenhouses, and conservation. The tours are scheduled for Sept. 12.

Educational sessions include such topics as financial management, agricultural economics and community development, 4-H programming, sustainable agriculture, and climate.

Organizers made the decision to apply to host the conference in part to spotlight the state’s agriculture, said Scott Gabbard, Shelby County extension director and educator for agriculture and natural resources.

“We wanted to show how agriculture works for us,” he noted. “We have such diversity in agriculture. Fort Wayne works perfectly because it’s an ‘island city’ surrounded by agriculture.”

Gabbard, also a conference co-chair, hopes attendees appreciate how much agriculture may be found in the state. “We’re 10 hours from two-thirds of the country’s population and we’re going to feed them. We’re the smallest state west of the Appalachian Mountains, but we’re a titan in agriculture.”

Nearly every state will be represented by the attendees, Farris said. He expects many agents from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

“Agriculture is different in parts of the country,” he pointed out. “In the South they have more cotton and in Arkansas, they have rice. As you travel further west, you find the large livestock operations. Here we have a lot of poultry and swine, but we don’t have the large feedlots they have out West.

“We’re looking forward to the convention. We’ve been planning for it for a long time.”