By TIM UNRUH

Salina Journal

MINNEAPOLIS -- Farming is still a top priority for Ron Seyfert, but in early April he'll be stepping away from a lead role in agriculture.

After 40 years, Seyfert said, it's time for another young person to take on the push to preserve a way of life in Ottawa County.

"I stayed this long because I enjoyed the job," he said. "I've always enjoyed working with the people."

Seyfert has been the livestock agent for Central Kansas Extension District No. 3 since July 2004 when Ottawa County and Saline County Extension districts merged. Seyfert's previous job title was Ottawa County agricultural Extension agent.

Reared in the Hoisington and Ellinwood areas, he completed an animal husbandry degree in 1968 at Kansas State University. Seyfert spent that summer working as a farm laborer before serving active duty with the U.S. Army Reserves from August 1968 into February 1969. Then he returned to K-State to begin a job search that led him to Minneapolis.

He started as Ottawa County agent April 1, 1969.

While Seyfert "came to us really green," former Extension board member Bill Daugherty said, he proved to be a great hire.

County agents normally get to tag along with other agents and obtain on-the-job training before taking a leadership role in a county, he said, but Seyfert didn't have that orientation period.

After several months with Seyfert in Ottawa County, Daugherty said "everything started falling into place. (Seyfert) just blossomed into a tremendous agent. He's probably retiring as one of the premier agents in the state."

Seyfert is sound in his approach to the business of running an Extension district, said Daugherty, who lives near Culver.

"It's only because of his expertise that we were able to go as long as we did before joining another county," Daugherty said.

Seyfert became a member of the Minneapolis and Ottawa County communities, he said, including marrying "one of our local girls." Ron and Karen Seyfert raised two boys in Minneapolis and now have two granddaughters.

Many Extension board members were mere children when they were introduced to Seyfert. His duties included 4-H club activities and the Ottawa County Fair. In some families, Seyfert worked with four and five generations.

"I just don't think you could find a soul that wasn't pleased with Ron's work in our county all these years," Daugherty said. "We all kind of hate to see him go."

Seyfert witnessed an evolution of technology, starting in the business long before computers, the Internet, e-mail, cell phones -- even fax machines. The only way to make a copy in his office was with a mimeograph machine.

But developments in 1969 -- "we put a man on the moon," he said -- may have foretold many changes.

Farmers have continually opted for bigger tractors and equipment, and improved crops and livestock through breeding.

"The only computer I knew of was at K-State, and it filled up a big room. You didn't carry it under your arm," Seyfert said. "You didn't have copy machines. I tried to clip things out of the paper, or I typed it up."

The 4020 John Deere, with a 70- to 80-horsepower engine, was the popular tractor. Today, the average tractor has 150 horsepower, and many sport twice that much power.

Combines that could harvest 16 feet of crops in one pass through the field were considered large in the late 1960s.

"Now 20 feet is about as small as you hear anybody talk about. Thirty feet is more common," Seyfert said. "Power steering was about the highest advance."

Now tractors and combines can be equipped to steer themselves. Some will turn themselves around using a global positioning system that also aids in dispensing just the right amount of fertilizer, herbicides and insecticides on fields that are mapped with a grid.

"That was science fiction when I started," Seyfert said. "I think the progressive farmers have always been looking for change and willing to learn." He recalls staging a minimum-tillage field day in 1973 or '74, a precursor to no-till farming practices today.

"Some of that goes back further than you think," he said.

Flood irrigation gave way to center-pivot sprinkler systems, then low-pressure nozzles that reduced evaporation losses, and, most recently, subsurface drip irrigation.

Soil-borne mosaic that plagued big chunks of the wheat in Ottawa County was relieved when K-State wheat breeders found wheat varieties with a mosaic-resistant gene.

"There's a problem we solved," Seyfert said.

While he will retire as a livestock expert, the overall job hasn't changed much -- passing research-based information from land-grant universities to agriculture producers, everything from food and fiber to fertilizer and fuel.

"The people at K-State do the research. It doesn't have much value if you can't present it to farmers," Seyfert said.

Being a farmer and livestock producer himself allowed Seyfert to try some of the innovations he was preaching.

"It has helped me keep my feet a little closer to reality. At times, it gave a little more credibility to what I was trying to do," he said. "I think we'll see technology become more in use all the time."

Seyfert carries a wealth of information from his years of working with farmers, livestock producers, 4-H leaders and members as a resource for horticulture and community development, said Tom Maxwell, Salina, the district agricultural Extension agent.

"We see a lot of new agents coming into the system. Ron's been a mentor to them and myself included. He's transferred a lot of information," said Maxwell, who is in his 29th year as a county agent.

The duties are simple to Seyfert.

"Our job is adult education," he said, "but you don't give grades for it."

n Reporter Tim Unruh can be reached at 822-1419 or by e-mail at tunruh@salina.com.

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