"I have been an Extension agent in Collin County for six years," Maxwell said. "Before coming, here I was in Fannin Count,y which is in the same district just a county to the northeast, I was there for five years."
Since Maxwell has worked in more than one county, he has been a man of many hats, helping in other areas of the Extension service which offers agents in horticulture, 4-H and youth programming, family consumer sciences as well as agriculture and natural resources.
"In my case, there is a lot of variability because, like I said, I stared in Fannin County," he explained. "Even though it is the county that is adjacent to Collin County... (it's a) very rural county with a lot of traditional agriculture -- you know, a lot of beef cattle, a lot of grain crops are grown there, corn and wheat, soy beans and so on. In Fannin County, because of the smaller population it was what we called a two-agent county, agriculture agent and a family consumer sciences agent."
Since moving to Collin County, Maxwell has seen a few key changes.
"Moving over to here where I am at now, Collin County is a much larger population," he said. "I think right now we have a little over 790,000 people. So our clientele here are a lot different than in Fannin County. We have a lot of people here that have smaller farms or ranchettes, as far as acreage. A lot of the people are new to agriculture. But my responsibilities are more focused here in Collin County, because I only deal with agriculture and natural resources.
"We are a four-agent county," he continued. "I focus only on adult programming and agriculture here in Collin County. A lot of that covers the same areas as I did in Fannin County in the realm of agriculture, livestock production, grain crop production, horse management -- we have a lot of horse owners here in Collin County. My major focus that really encompasses all of those areas, and I call it small-acreage agriculture. Because we have a lot of small farmers and ranchers, some of them own livestock, some of them own horses, and some of them own both. Some of those have more horticulture-related ag ventures, pecan orchards, fruit orchards, vegetable crops, vineyards and so on."
This change in clientele has been no small thing. Maxwell said approximately 75 to 80 percent of the people he works with are part of small operations.
"They bought small properties and they want to try to utilize it for agriculture and that is where we come in," Maxwell said. "I can see more of a need for us, Extension service, than ever before. It is a new clientele, it is."
Being in such close proximity to the Metroplex, Maxwell believes a lot of his new clientele are looking for an escape from the city hustle to a more rural lifestyle.
"Even though we are such close proximity to the Metroplex, we are still far enough away that people can enjoy the county lifestyle," he explained. "They can purchase a few acres and their children, they can teach their children about agriculture. The 'you need to be green' does come into play. They want to try to utilize their property, maybe they want to have their own vegetable garden, or their own fruit orchard, or maybe they have their own pasture to raise cattle or horses, or whatever the case may be. But, I think primarily it is the lifestyle. In a way, at least for a little while, they are away from the hustle and bustle of city life and I think that is the primary reason that people are doing this more and more."
With the new clientele, Maxwell and other agents have learned that they must deal with them differently as well. Many of them have never had any agriculture experience.
"Well for the most part, and I say this as a compliment, most of those folks are very educated," he said. "Technology has really changed the Extension a lot too. We have a lot of things that are available now on the Internet. If they want to look up, for instance, how to start a fruit orchard, we have things online now where they can go online and they can read all about it. But yet still, they will call... They still want to have that personal contact with an educator.
"So, they call me now and they have researched a lot of it and they have questions, they have the correct questions that will help us to better help them," he continued. "They are highly-educated people that researched these before they jumped into something -- which is a good thing. We still get those calls and those office visits where a person will come in and say, 'Rick, I want to do something on my property with agriculture and I don't know what to do.'
"Those are becoming fewer and fewer. Now, it is where they come into my office or call me on the phone and they say, 'Rick, I want to put in a small fruit orchard and I would like to grow peaches. I have researched this on the Internet I have looked at several things and I have found out this, and this, and this, and this. How do I get started? What is the best approach? How does that work with the weather conditions? And, so on.' So I see us being needed even more so than in the past. Our clientele has changed, like I said, they are highly-educated and they come in with a focus, a plan and they just want us to help to come up with a plan and make sure they do it the correct way."
As the clientele has changed, the technology has progressed and Maxwell sees their programs becoming easier access through pod-cast, webinars and posted media presentations on the Extension's website, http://texasextension.tamu.edu/.
"What I can see with the clientele we just talked about, they might work jobs still in the Metroplex area and they have families," he said. "Their time is limited. We still have our traditional programs, and by that I mean the lecture-type programs, the field days, the tours, -- we still do those. But, I can see more and more in the future, this clientele, the only time they have is maybe in the evenings or on the weekends or even late at night. That is when they are on the computer and searching the Internet. We are trying to provide more on the line of technology-assisted type programming."
