Portage County officials heard a presentation on UW Extension's regional agricultural staffing model and discussed options after the county's longtime county agricultural agent announced retirement, effective Aug. 14.

The discussion, led by Heidi, Ag Institute director for UW Extension, outlined a move away from single-county general ag agents toward regional, specialized crop and livestock educators who work across multiple counties. Heidi said the regional model pairs specialized regional educators with statewide outreach specialists to cover topics such as ag water quality, grazing and pest management.

Heidi, Ag Institute director, told the committee Portage County is now one of the last counties with a single-county ag agent and that Ken, the county's longtime general agricultural agent, will retire on Aug. 14. "You are actually one of only two counties in all of Wisconsin that is not currently in the regional model and still had a county ag agent," Heidi said. She said the regional educators focus on narrower subject areas (for example, crop production or livestock) and cover a larger geography to provide deeper technical expertise.

Committee members asked how Portage County producers would get questions answered during the transition. Heidi described a statewide ag question system that routes producer inquiries to the most appropriate specialist by email, voicemail or text, and she noted Portage County producers already rely on UW Extension faculty researchers (including Jed Cahoon, Amanda Gevins and Russ Groves) for technical vegetable-production questions.

On funding, Heidi explained counties pay a per-educator fee that is divided among participating counties in a regional arrangement. "The way that we do the regional model is we take that county fee and we divide it by the number of counties that are invested," she said, giving the example of a roughly $46,000 county fee split across participating counties.

Heidi said neighboring counties already participate in the regional model and named a livestock educator, Adam Hartfield, who currently covers Marquette, Adams and Green Lake counties; adding Portage County to that coverage would expand his geography. Committee members discussed matching Portage's production profile (notably vegetable production) with adjacent counties to minimize mismatch between educator expertise and local needs.

No hiring decision was requested at the meeting. Heidi said UW Extension is monitoring budget and hiring capacity and will return with a recommended coverage proposal when staff and funding conditions allow. The committee did not take formal action on the staffing model at this meeting.

The presentation prompted follow-up requests from committee members to map existing regional resources, identify the specific production needs of local livestock and specialty producers, and confirm interim contact paths for producer questions during the summer growing season.