Utah State Extension in Box Elder County---

David Deakin grows wheat on a 5,000 acre farm near Snowville and, like many farmers, he was faced with inheriting the family farm without all the tools he needed to be successful.


"Although I had helped my father with production, I didn't have any experience marketing the crop," Deakin says. "I turned to Lyle Holmgren, the Extension agent in Box Elder County, and was able to tap into a lot of data on grain prices in the area. Lyle also helped me understand the cycle in the market. Adding safflower into the crop rotation has increased my annual utilization of the land by more than 50 percent.

"Attending Extension specialist workshops on 'options and futures' has also made me more comfortable with these tools.

"Weather data, weed control information, wheat variety trials…it's all there. It is quite a drive into the Brigham City office, so I'm also grateful that much of this information is available on the web," he concludes.

For more on Box Elder County visit http://extension.usu.edu/VicePres/usu2you
/allcounties/boxelder.pdf, or to to find out more about Extension in other counties go to http://extension.usu.edu/VicePres/usu2you/.