Extension 101: What We Actually Do

You’ve probably heard the name Cooperative Extension… but what does it actually mean, and how does it show up in everyday life here in Randolph County? In this episode of Under The Green, we break it all down in plain language.

From supporting farmers and gardeners to working with youth, families, and landowners, this conversation highlights the wide range of ways Extension serves our community—often behind the scenes. We talk about the most common reasons people reach out for help, what a “day in the life” of Extension work really looks like, and how the Agricultural Center makes these resources more accessible than ever.

If you’ve ever wondered whether Extension has something for you, this episode will help you see just how connected this work is to daily life—and how easy it is to get started.

Thank you for listening! Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RandolphNCCE or Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/randolph_county_extension/

Transcript

Extension 101: What We Actually Do - January 21, 2026

Welcome back to Under the Green, the podcast that gives you an inside look at the programs, people and services housed right here at the Randolph County Agricultural Center. I'm your host, Chasity. And today we're kicking off episode two, extension one hundred and one. What we actually do. If you've ever thought I've heard of Cooperative Extension, but what is it exactly? You're not alone. Extension is one of those things a lot of folks benefit from without even realizing it. this episode, we're breaking it down in plain language. Who extension serves what we help with and how you can get connected. Whether you're a farmer, a parent, a gardener, a landowner, or just someone who wants reliable answers and resources. today we have Lauren Langley again. I'll let her introduce herself and her title, and we'll just jump right into the questions. Yeah. Thank you for having me. So, Lauren Langley, I'm the county extension director here in Randolph County, and, Yeah, I'm I'm excited to be here again. I think this podcast is great. I'm so glad that you love it, because I love it, too. So we're going to just start out with the first question in your own words, because yes, we can look up elevator speeches on extensions websites and go through all of those things that we are trained to know and memorize. But in your own words, how would you describe extension and what we do? Oh, so it's it's always a a loaded question to explain extension. so I usually start out with saying, okay, we are part of the land grant universities. So in North Carolina we have two land grant universities. That's NC State University and NC A&T University. we are the extension mission. along with, you know, you have research and then you have education or academics. So there's three pillars, if you will, to these land grant universities. we're the extension component. So then I say okay extension is then part of county government. we are in every single county in North Carolina. Extension is tied to every single land grant across the US. and how it looks in each state is a little bit different. But in North Carolina we are in every county. So we are a joint effort between county government and the land grant universities. And we take information from those land grant universities that's research based, and we deliver that information out to the community and to the people in the counties that we serve. That was a lot. Yeah, it's hard to sum it up super quickly. Yes. I guess if I have to do it quickly, I'm like, hey, have you heard of four H before? Yeah, that's my go to too. Everyone's like, oh yeah, I know that one. Or I go do you remember hatching chickens when you were in elementary school? And they're like, yes, I remember that. I'm like, we did that. That was us. Thank you. Yeah, there's a couple ways I can go about it, but, but yeah, that's probably a more formal answer as to understanding exactly what is extension. Yes. And and you can attribute your deep knowledge to that because tell us how long you have been with extension. So come February first I will have been with extension for fifteen years. it doesn't feel like that most days, but I've been here a hot minute. Yeah, I'm on year eleven. Yeah. we've got these elevator speeches down pat. Absolutely, absolutely. specifically for Randolph County, why is it important that extension is here and what needs do we meet. Yeah, I think extension is definitely needed everywhere. specifically when you look at Randolph County, it is a really large ag county. it also is growing in industry. you have to look at the Toyota plant that's here. it's also growing in population. so when you have all those things happening, there becomes this increased need for information and for learning and for resources. So I think extension time and time again is very relevant to helping meet those needs of the community, whether it's farmers or whether it's somebody learning how to cook or whether it's youth want to get involved in leadership or clubs or things like that. So with that, who would you say extension is for? I would say it's for everybody. we literally serve all audiences that I'm aware of from, you know, your young people that are in the 4-H program from five to eighteen years old. And we even do go into daycare centers with other programming. So we're reaching them even younger than five, all the way up to senior citizens and everybody in the middle, no matter what your occupation is, or anything like that, we have something for you. So if you had to describe your day to day? What's something that you do from day to day that would surprise people? this is a very interesting question. So in true fashion and extension, no two days are the same. And there are some days where I'm really tied down and I'm working hard on the computer, answering emails or planning for programs or answering phone calls or things like that. There are other days where I'm a little bit more out in the field. I'm on farm visits, or I'm out teaching a workshop. And then there's days where you could find me taking out the trash, or cleaning up a break room or whatever it might be. I am doing whatever needs to get done. but it's a balance for me of being a supervisor and a department head, but also consultation, work, Programming and just lending a hand throughout the day. So you just never know with me what you'll find. Yes. And we appreciate all that you do. We really do. it is not an easy job to, come in and do programming for a county and then also lead people. And we have a pretty good sized staff. there's twelve of us. There will be twelve. There's eleven. But we're looking for a 4-H agent. If you know anybody out there. so there will be twelve. And we all have our own personalities and our own little intricacies of how we do things. And so to manage that, yes, her day to day does never, ever look the same. Yes. Yeah. It's it's sometimes really wild. And there's days that absolutely, totally don't go as planned. And I think in extension, but also as a supervisor you have to be willing to be flexible and just kind of roll with it sometimes. So what would you say? You know about just a few things, about three or so that we are currently helping as extension that we're helping our community with right now. Yeah. So, I would say growing growing is a really good one. So growing plants, growing, raising livestock, growing our own food. So that right there goes across three of our program areas. When you look at horticulture, livestock and then also our family and consumer sciences, when we're talking about growing the food that we're eating, cooking and nutrition. So again, family and consumer sciences, that there's always an interest for that and making sure that we are, you know, eating healthy. But we're also learning how to, cook things that we might be growing out of the garden or canned things for future use and stuff like that. and then another one's like navigating this digital world our digital skills. Agent is very busy. She she does a lot of one on one consultations. Somebody gets a a new phone or they're given their first smartphone and they don't know how to navigate it. And she's right there just helping people navigate everything from, online. Safety is a big component of what she does, helping everyone from youth understand online safety families to understand it, and also our senior citizens. So that's a big component of what she does. She is very good at it too. And she's super sweet. We love her. She has a lot of patience. Yes, I'm excited to have her on here. She's so fun to talk to. Yes. what are three reasons why people should contact extension and how can we help them? Yeah. I think one of the biggest things is we most of our programs are and classes and workshops are free or low cost. We want to make sure that they are priced accordingly for everybody to jump in and take a class and have that opportunity. that there's not any barriers with that information. we are a trusted source. Information is research based. So if you get on the internet and you start looking into, any particular topic you get, you're almost as confused as when you started. And you can come here knowing we're not trying to sell you a product. We're not trying to sell anything or push any agenda. We're literally here to give you the best information we possibly can that has research behind it. it's not my opinion, it's good trusted information. And then we are relevant. we are a needs based organization. So again the programs that you see are not just coming out of my mind. they are coming from actually doing needs assessment with the people that we serve, the people in the community and figuring out what topics do we need to address? What are the biggest problems? I think that we do remain very relevant because of how how we get that feedback from people. And we're needs based when someone needs help, what's the easiest first step to get connected with us? Yeah. I think the easiest way to get connected with us is just to Google Randolph County Cooperative Extension, which should pop up our website when you go to the website. if you go to the left hand side, click Meet our Staff. Then you can see all of our different staff, all our different program areas, along with our email and their phone numbers. And if you aren't sure who you should talk to, there is just a main number on our home page on our website, you can just call in and we can help navigate you to the right person. in the last episode, we met everybody in the AG Center, all of our different department heads, and kind of touched on this a little bit, but we're going to ask and you can go more in depth than we did last time. But how does having the ag center change the way that we serve the public? Yeah. two things come to mind for me. We are now way more public facing. We were kind of tucked away downtown in a like strip mall, and it was not easy to find us. And we also were surrounded by asphalt. the other thing that comes to mind is just the sheer amount of open space and hands on opportunity here, but we are right in front of everybody. We're easy to get to. Everybody driving down sixty four is we're now front and center with that, with the ag center. I think that that definitely helps us, and it makes it easier for the public to kind of dip in and get information. And we've had a lot of that actually just people driving in going, hey, we want to learn more. You know, we see the signs, stuff like that. But the hands on components a big one. So when we were in the strip mall like I said, we just had asphalt around us. Big parking lot. There's nowhere to do a demo garden or a demo orchard, or to have cattle brought on site or to do anything like that. here, having all this land to work with, to do demo plots and the demo orchard and the, the greenhouse and the garden beds and also the arena to bring in animals to do workshops. It definitely it's a game changer for us is what it is because, we're able to offer, I think, a way bigger variety and a much more like hands on component, that people just can't get anywhere like we are, we are going to have it here for them. And before we would have to really think through, how can we offer that? How can we teach that and find the right farms to partner with, or the right people to partner with? And we're still going to do that, but it's just really nice having it in house our fingertips as well. Yes, it's going to be I know, a fantastic thing for our for our 4-H summer. having gone through many summers in the old building where we were kind of trapped inside, we did a lot of fun field trips, which, you know, the youth love, but it's going to be really nice to get them outdoors, because that is something I know our educators in the schools and our parents are even like, I can't get my kid off their devices and get them outside, and you can do that here because we're going to have ways, you know, our garden beds, the greenhouses, they're not just for the adults in the community. They're also for the kids. just know that when we're planning summer, they're going to get dirty and it's going to happen. It's going to be great because we've got grass, we've got space, and they're going to go. They're just going to run wild. Yeah, I will say that, I used to run an ag camp for youth in Alamance County, and honestly, one of the most favorite things about this ag camp was when they got to go visit the demo orchard, or if we took them to a farm that had an orchard. They absolutely loved taste testing all of the fruit, and they love learning about grafting and all those things. So it's going to be so exciting to incorporate that and then actually be able to go out there and see how it's grown and really be there with it. So yes, I'm super excited. Yes. Yeah. And it's they forget that they're learning. That's that's what's so great about it. Yeah. It is so fun. with fifteen years of experience, I know you have plenty of stories. with farm visits or phone calls or however people may reach out to you, but let's just bring it in. More recent, could you give some examples of how extension, whether it be yourself or another agent that you've heard about, has helped solve a real life problem recently? Yeah. I'm going to just stick to some stuff that's came through, me but I will say that all of the agents are constantly helping clientele, and they all have wonderful success stories on what they're doing. but I'll be able to get into a little bit more specifics through some things I have encountered. recently I had a horse owner reach out to me and they're like, hey, I would really love to plant some trees for shade in my horse pasture. And I need a little bit of advice on which trees to plant. and they were search on the internet and just not sure what they could trust And ultimately that usually leads to extension because there are certain trees that are toxic to horses. And I usually give them some information, but I also tie them into, um, horticulture. I'm like, hey, if you haven't talked to our horticulture agent, they are a little bit more knowledgeable about trees than even I am, because I usually have a surface level of some of those type of things. I know enough that I can guide them, So anyways, I answered her back and provided her some resources and also said, hey, I think it'd be really great if you got in touch with Horticulture agent, because they could have a little bit further recommendations on which trees grow best for this area as well. So that was one, another one that came in recently was a, a cow They were having a hard time keeping weight on this particular dairy cow. And, one thing that I have been trained in doing is fecal egg counting. So that is one tool in the toolbox for managing internal parasites. And it gives you a look into how many parasites are out in that pasture. So anyways, I was able to, to look at that and do a fecal egg count and report back that, hey, this this animal is free of internal parasites. So there's something else probably going on here. so it can kind of help rule things out as we're trying to dial it in. And then another one that was recent was, a producer reached in and a cow that had just calved passed away. And she's like, oh my goodness, now I have a bottle calf and I just need to learn all the things. And so she wanted to know, okay. Like, how do I how do I set it up for success with this cold weather. What kind of vaccine should I give? What should I be doing? I've given it colostrum and things like that. So I will give feedback. But ultimately I'm also going to say, hey, make sure you reach out to your veterinarian and you discuss things further with them, in case I have missed a point. because we are not veterinarians in extension and we can definitely give recommendations on vaccines, but ultimately we encourage that veterinary client patient relationship in that. So that's just a few things that have came in lately. Those are all really good things. I have, also been the foster mom for a bottle calf. it haven't we all. Yeah, it's it's hard work but it's rewarding when you watch them grow, and then they can get out in the pasture on their own and you're like, oh, that's my baby. Yeah, yeah. And I will say, for the public, fecal egg counting is just what it sounds like. It is what it says. And they do that process just why? She said they do it and it can help with cows. It can help with your small ruminants, your sheep or goats. checking for those, those parasites that might be causing problems. so if you're an owner of those type of animals, you're probably also well versed in that being a beneficial thing. As we kind of wrap up, just got a couple more questions. If listeners remember only one thing about extension after today, after this podcast, what should it be? I think it is that we are here to serve the community through quality education and customer service. That was really short and sweet, I love it. Alright. Well now for the moment that has gotten us a lot of traction on our social media, which is a great thing. Keep it coming. do you have any exciting news you want to tell us about anything that's happening here? Any, like, famous person coming? Yeah, we did a big news drop yesterday and the crowd went wild. we have doctor Temple Grandin coming, to the AG Center on March thirteenth. It's a Friday. she's coming to a workshop that evening and a book signing for livestock producers or anybody interested in hearing from her. I mean, it will be open to the public. We'll have a registration. There will be a small fee. but anybody interested in hearing from her, it's just going to be livestock oriented on livestock handling. and the research that she has done in the livestock industry. So, yeah, we're we're really, really excited. She's has had such a significant impact on the livestock industry, and she is just a phenomenal speaker and we're very excited for her to come. I think everybody's very excited. Yes, there's a lot of people, you know, in the ag world that are local, and I know you've told me before we started recording that you've even had some folks that know you from out of state that are like, oh my gosh, I want to come. I want to come here. I want to meet her, which is so awesome. So we also dropped another event that's happening soon in the coming up months. Do you want to talk about that one, Lauren? The internet is blowing up. Everybody is so excited. it is called the Common Ground Festival, which is going to be our open house event here at the AG Center, and it's happening on Saturday, April eleventh. So if you want to come out and explore all the spaces, meet all the staff that's here on site from Cooperative Extension, Soil and Water and the AG center, that is going to be the day to do it. And we're going to have activities and all kinds of things for youth and adults alike. we're going to have good food. We're it's just going to be fun. It's going to be a fun day. So I hope you all can make it. It's going to be free to come out, check us out, ask us questions, learn about extension, and learn about what soil and water does, and also see all the space that's available for rent as well. Yes, we're very excited, but we're not going to drop everything right now. We gotta have some surprises in our pocket. just for now, save the date, put it on your calendars, put it in your phone wherever you keep up with your life. April eleventh, twenty twenty six here at the AG Center. And you are not going to want to miss it. well, Lauren, thank you so much for joining us for this episode of Under the Green. I hope today helped make Cooperative Extension feel a little more familiar and a lot more approachable. Thank you so much for having me on today. I had a blast. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss what's next? Because in our next episode, we're going inside the food hub. What it is, how it works, and how it's going to help connect local farms, fresh food, and our community in a whole new way. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next time right here under the green.