ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, September 7, 1996            TAG: 9609090035
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-6  EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER

COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SPOTS TO BE FILLED SOON POSITIONS WERE VACANT FOR MORE THAN A YEAR

The Virginia Cooperative Extension is preparing to fill vacant positions in Bedford, Franklin, Wythe and 11 other Virginia counties.

Some of the extension agent positions have been vacant for more than a year because of state budget cutbacks. Filling the vacancies is "welcome news," said Wayne Ashworth, president of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, the state's largest farmer organization.

County agents provide farmers and other residents with information about such things as crops, livestock and financial management.

For the first time, the Extension Service will be filling county agent positions with specialists who are required to have master's degrees, said Clark Jones, director of the Extension Service, which is based at Virginia Tech. The past practice was to hire generalists with a broad range of knowledge but no speciality to work as agents.

Under a new organizational plan for the Extension Service, the agents will be responsible for helping farmers in more than one county.

The new Bedford County agent will be an animal-science specialist and also will work with farmers in Amherst, Appomatox and Campbell counties. The Franklin County agent will specialize in plant science and will also provide services in Henry and Pittsylvania counties. And the Wythe County agent will be a dairy science specialist and will also work in Floyd, Grayson, Montgomery, Pulaski, Smyth and Washington counties.

The agency is arranging interviews with applicants, Jones said.

In addition to the county agent jobs, the Extension Service is filling several research positions based on the Tech campus and at the service's research stations around the state. The agency has already hired or transferred two food science specialists, a forage specialist and a youth and forestry specialist. It has advertised specialist jobs in beef cattle, soybeans, seafood, poultry and pork processing, vegetable entomology and issues concerning families and children.

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