Published: February 24, 2008 10:34 pm            

Veteran Tazewell extension agent calling it a career

TAZEWELL, Va. — When this coming Friday rolls around, Mike Harris won’t have anywhere he will have to be at 8 a.m.

“It seems like all of my life, I’ve had to be somewhere every day at 8 a.m.,” Harris, the 23-year veteran extension agent of the Virginia Tech Extension office in Tazewell said. “This Friday, I can sit in the house until 11 a.m., if I want to. I don’t have to go anywhere.”

Harris, 59, has spent a lifetime helping farmers, serving his country, supporting his community and learning how to read the subtle signs of seasonal and cyclical changes in the rhythms of the agricultural universe, and to figure out how farmers can survive those changes.

“That’s not going to end just because I’m not in the office every day,” Harris said. “I’ll be working on my farm in Thompson Valley. As far as I know, I’m still the only Mike Harris in Thompson Valley. That’s one of the great things about the American farmer. In other professions, people go to work and do a job. When a farmer walks out the door of a morning, he’s thinking about ways he can help his neighbor.”

Harris is a Tazewell County native, a graduate of Tazewell High School and a 1971 graduate of Virginia Tech where he served in the Corps of Cadets and earned a degree in animal sciences. He served three years in the U.S. Army after graduation and went to Penn State University in State College, Pa. After he completed his graduate degree in animal nutrition at Penn State, he accepted a position with the Pure Bred Charolais Cattle Association in Texas.

“I loved my job, but I didn’t love living in Houston,” Harris said. “That’s the most godforsaken climate I’ve ever lived in. The humidity and heat killed me. I wore glasses, and every time I stepped outside, my glasses fogged up. I wanted to get back into the mountains.”

Harris took a job with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and worked to build international markets for feeder cattle and feeder pigs. Eventually, he returned to Tazewell County and started working with the extension office in 1986.

“I’ve been so blessed to work with the class of people I have worked with,” Harris said. “The reason I’m leaving is because I’ve never been in control of my schedule. At 8 a.m., I’ve had somewhere I had to be. My friends in the (Tazewell) Rotary Club can’t believe it, but I’m looking forward to it.”

Harris said that farmers will be facing great challenges in the near future. He said that at harvest time, corn futures were at $5 a bushel. “Normally, they would be at $2.50 or $2.60,” he said. “That was at harvest time when you normally have a surplus of corn.” Harris said that when President George W. Bush made ethanol production an important aspect of the energy bill, it made a huge impact on agriculture.

“It will ultimately impact agriculture more than anything since the moldboard plow,” Harris said, making reference to the 17th Century design change in plows that revolutionized the way farmers prepare soil for planting. “It’s amazing that an energy bill would have more effect on farmers than an agriculture bill. It will also change the cattle industry because we won’t be able to afford to fatten steers up with corn.”

Harris said that 99 percent of the cattle raised in Tazewell County are not a consumer-ready product. He said local farmers raise cattle on grass, and sell them as feeder cattle for feed yards that will feed them grain to produce the kind of protein-rich meat that American consumers demand. Harris said that consumers in China and Korea are also demanding beef with more protein, which also adds to the cost American consumers pay.

“In my grandfather’s time, we made fat cattle off of grass,” Harris said. “The feeder cattle business didn’t really get going until the 1950s and early ‘60s. We had a cheap grain product then so we had cattle, pigs and poultry raised on cheap feed. The days of cheap feed are over. Ethanol causes all of it to change and now the former Third World incomes increase and so does the peoples’ desire for meat.”

Harris said that the price increases in corn futures is “demand driven” and that it will eventually have a major impact on all of American life. “The energy policy will increase the price of food,” he said. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” Yet, in spite of his prediction, “I don’t want to go back to grass-fed beef. I don’t want to compete with Argentina. I’m a prime rib kind of guy and when I invite guests to my home, I want to put prime rib on their plates too. When the prodigal son came home, they killed the fatted calf. That’s the way I feel about it.”

Harris said that the change taking place right now is “fundamental,” and although he has spent a lifetime studying the changing trends, “I don’t know what the implications are,” he said. “This county — Tazewell County — is unique. The good Lord gave us a better grazing season than all the counties around us. It will be 5 degrees cooler here than in all the counties around us because of our elevation, and we receive rainfall because those clouds unload when they come over these highlands. Our grass grows about an inch a week in most growing seasons.”

Harris said that if Tazewell County farmers have to go back to growing grass-fed beef, “we’ll be better off than everyone else around, but our Januarys and Februarys are bad,” he said. “It will be a challenge for us.”

Through the years, Harris has been a friendly, accessible and frank spokesman for regional farmers, but he has also been a resource for young people. His busy office isn’t cluttered with certificates and plaques heralding his own accomplishments, but he does have a canceled check from the summer of 1991 in a prominent position for everyone to see. The check was written on the Wool Pool account to Billy Wagner of Tannersville and was in the amount of $28.

“We pool the county’s wool product every year,” Harris said. “I usually hire some high school kids to come and help load the wool. Years ago, we would fill three railroad boxcars, but now it’s only about three tractor-trailer loads. It’s always hot, back-breaking work because it’s in the summer and these kids have to toss these 300-pound bags of wool around.

“In the summer of 1991, I got Billy Wagner and his cousin, Jeff Lamie to help load the wool,” Harris said. “It was a real hot day, but those two boys worked as hard as they could. I had to make them sit down and drink water so they wouldn’t dehydrate themselves. That $28 check I gave Billy was for seven hours of work.

“A few years ago after Billy was traded from the Astros to the Mets, he had to sit out some of the first of the season while he was doing some rehab on his arm,” Harris said. “As a result, he wasn’t picked for the All Star team even though he finished the season leading the league in saves. Anyway, I wrote Billy a letter and told him that since he didn’t make the All Star team and was probably down on his luck, we could use a little extra help that year loading the wool pool trailers,” Harris said. “I told him that we were paying a dollar more an hour than when he loaded wool for me.

“A week or ten days later I got a call from Billy,” Harris said. “He got a big kick out of my letter, and said that some days, he would rather be in Tazewell County loading wool. He’s a fine young man.”

A group calling itself “The Friends of Mike” are hosting a retirement party for Harris on Thursday, Feb. 28, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at Nuckolls Hall on the Tazewell County Fairgrounds. The Friends of Mike said everyone is welcome to attend and enjoy themselves.

“You would think that being an extension agent would be only working with crops and animals, but it’s not,” Harris said. “It’s a people business. I guess if I’m going to miss anything, I’ll miss the people.”

Harris plans to raise a herd of 150-200 feeder cattle on the 514-acre farm he co-owns with his father, but he also hinted that he might talk with Dr. Mark Estepp, president of Southwest Virginia Community College about the possibilities of an agriculture program at the college. However, that won’t take place at 8 a.m. this coming Friday morning. Harris has no appointments for that time. His schedule is open.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.