Tight budget puts Extension office in peril - Cory de Vera, News-Leader

As a land grant university, the University of Missouri maintains the extension department, with a mission of allowing Missourians to benefit from university resources and expertise. Programs the extension office provides have traditionally been offered free or at relatively low cost. Smith said the university's agricultural experts came to his farm to offer advice at no cost. If the local office had to close by 2012, the fate of the seven local experts whose salaries are covered by the university would be determined in cooperation with an MU vice provost, who would listen to recommendations from regional director Rick Mammen.