Steele County to Drop Funding for U of M Extension Ag Educator

Steele County plans to stop paying its half of a University of Minnesota Extension agriculture educator position in 2027, ending a local Extension presence that dates to 1923 even as commissioners restored funding for the county's Master Gardener coordinator.

The Steele County Board voted Sept. 22 to cut both the Master Gardener coordinator and the ag educator, giving the university the required 90-day notice that the county would not fund either position in 2027, according to Steele County Times reporting. After Master Gardener volunteers and residents spoke against the cut at a later meeting, the board restored money for the part-time coordinator. The ag educator was not part of that vote.

What does the cut mean for the position?

Ryan Lermon has served as the agricultural and natural resources educator for Steele and Rice counties since 2024, with the two counties splitting the cost evenly. His position is still technically funded in the county's 7.1% preliminary levy, but it remains on the list of cuts intended to bring the levy down. Lermon expects the final levy to be set in mid-December. When he spoke with Agweek, no November budget meeting had appeared on the schedule.

Commissioner Jim Abbe cast the only vote against restoring the Master Gardener funding. He pointed to "headwinds" from federal and state cuts to counties and said the goal is to reduce the preliminary levy increase, according to Steele County Times reporting.

Most public pushback focused on the Master Gardeners, and Lermon said many people did not realize his job was also at stake.

"The hard part for me is this is right in the middle of harvest season, so everybody's super busy right now," Lermon said. "A lot of people were surprised to hear about it, and they didn't even know that the position had been cut."

If Steele County drops its share, Lermon would remain a half-time educator for Rice County on Jan. 1. Each county holds its own contract with the university. "They fund me, the same person, but they're independent of each other," he said.

The counties pay for the position, but Lermon is a university employee. Extension would fill the other half of his time through the end of June with statewide workshops or campus projects, keeping his pay and benefits whole. After June, he would drop to half time and lose his benefits.

Who fills the gap in a county without an educator?

Lermon works out of Extension offices in Owatonna and Faribault, fielding calls that range from homeowners asking about insects, bats and ailing trees to pasture walks with livestock owners deciding where to place fences and which grasses fit their animals. He also runs land rent workshops, and farmers frequently call afterward to ask about rent prices in their area — a direct input-cost question for anyone negotiating cash rents.

Lermon draws a sharp line between his role and the advice farmers already receive. "At the end of the day, they're trying to sell you something, and that's not my role," Lermon said. "My role is to provide unbiased research information to people." He said the same logic applies to artificial intelligence tools, which sometimes pull from sources that do not exist or fabricate answers, making Extension more valuable, in his view.

TJ Kartes, a regional sales representative and cover crop specialist for Saddle Butte Ag based in Steele County, came to know Lermon while the two taught a cover crop seminar at the Owatonna farm show. Kartes called commissioners after learning of the proposed cut.

"I think there's other places they could cut before they cut that educator position," Kartes said. Kartes said Extension educators bring university research to farmers while he works more with private data, and the two send farmers each other's way. Asked who fills that role without an ag educator, Kartes said: "You don't have anybody."

Kartes is part of a regional soil health team that recently began inviting Lermon to its meetings. "Anywhere you have a good Extension educator, it definitely helps the county," Kartes said.

About 30 Minnesota counties have ag educators, but few remain in southern Minnesota. Blue Earth and Le Sueur counties cut their joint position in 2024. Residents can still contact commissioners directly or speak during the open comment period at county board meetings before the levy is finalized in December.