Whether they rode up to a farm on a horse-drawn buggy or offered advice on the bed of a pickup truck, county extension agents have been providing unbiased, research-based information to Kentucky farmers for a century.

"Even though we are a hundred years old, the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service is seeking to find and serve people where they are and in ways they want to receive information," said Jimmy Henning, director of the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service. "Today, that includes the farm visits and the smartphone. In addition, programs have expanded to encompass youth, families, community development, and even fine arts."

Charles Mahan was hired as the first full-time county agent in agriculture in the fall of 1912 in Henderson County, even though Congress’ Smith-Lever Act didn’t establish the Cooperative Extension Service until 1914. His annual salary of $1,400 was split between the county and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Farm Management. During his first year he did his work by horse and buggy. After that, local leaders bought him a red motorcycle so he could visit farmers more efficiently.

Six more agriculture agents were hired by spring 1913. The first home demonstration agents, now called family and consumer sciences extension agents, were hired in early 1914 on a short-term basis. They worked through the summer teaching food preservation techniques to women and girls. J.M. Feltner is listed as a district 4-H club agent for Eastern Kentucky based out of Laurel County in 1917. However, from the late 1930s until the early 1950s, those who worked primarily with counties’ young people held the title of assistant agent in agriculture or assistant agent in home economics. In the 1960s these agents officially became county 4-H agents