Despite external influences such as societal restrictions imposed during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, farmers continue to work, and needs for outreach and education have not waned. Extension professionals must continue to support these needs by using media and channels not typically employed when more traditional vehicles, such as on-site…

Festivals, fairs, and events (FFEs) provide rural communities with economic and noneconomic benefits. For the project described in this article, we conducted a needs assessment of Iowa FFE managers by surveying them about the challenges they face in event management and then used the results of the assessment as the basis for training sessions…

The purpose of this study was to determine the agricultural information preferences of crop producers in Iowa and the implications for agricultural extension education. The objective was to identify agricultural information issues producers perceive as significant to their businesses. The results will help agricultural extension educators and…

Community clusters allow small towns to combine their efforts to enhance economic development, promote tourism, or share public services. Two successful clusters of communities in Iowa are the Area Community Commonwealth and the North Iowa Rural Area Development. Both clusters participated in Iowa State University's Cooperative Extension Service…

The goal of this paper was to develop a theory of organization/environment interaction by examining the impact of perceived environmental uncertainty on organizational processes and on organizational goal attainment. It examines theories from the organizational environment literature and derives corollaries that are empirically tested using a data…

THIS STUDY SOUGHT TO APPRAISE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PRESENTING LIVESTOCK FEEDING INFORMATION BY TELEVISION. AUDIENCES OF "OUTLOOK" TELECASTS IN THE OMAHA AND SIOUX CITY AREAS RATED EXTENSION ECONOMISTS ON AN 18-ITEM SOURCE CREDIBILITY CHECKLIST WITH A SEVEN-POINT SCALE. RATING SHEETS WERE RETURNED BY 26 PERSONS AT OMAHA AND 40 AT SIOUX…

Interviews with 940 Iowa farm operators and their wives were conducted during 1977 to address the question of perceived extension effectiveness (the degree to which the respondent perceived the Cooperative Extension Service as meeting his/her needs). Two models of organizational effectiveness were advanced and suggested as being consistent with…

This booklet contains summaries of workshop presentations at the conference on community development. This conference brought local community officials and leaders together with interested citizens to learn about successful rural community development activities occurring in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Sessions covered four main…

The orientation, interaction, and personal and social characteristics of an area development leadership group in Iowa were analyzed with the aim of helping plan educational efforts for the Extension Service. Objectives were to determine the extent of communication of selected social system elements by the state staff to the leadership group;…

A sample of 731 farmers was surveyed to identify perceptions regarding selected soil and water conservation practices. The sample was stratified and proportioned by conservation district to have a representative group of respondents across Iowa. Items on the mailed questionnaire were designed to assess perceptions regarding issues in soil and…

This "special focus" journal issue consists of 13 individual articles on the theme of rural family programs relating to school, health services, church, and other institutions. It includes: (1) "Towards a Rural Family Policy" (Judith K. Chynoweth and Michael D. Campbell); (2) "Montana: Council for Families Collaborates for…

During the second year of a 3-year study involving 112 Iowa farm families, mothers of children aged 4 to 10 years old expressed expectations of independence, responsibility, and hard work from their children during home interviews. The importance of the parent-child relationship together with the lack of sufficient child-rearing research on rural…

AN EXPERIMENTAL ACTION AND RESEARCH PROJECT WAS CONDUCTED DURING 1960-64 BY THE IOWA AGRICULTURAL AND HOME ECONOMICS EXPERIMENT STATION, IN COOPERATION WITH THE TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY, TO DETERMINE THE INFLUENCE OF AN INTENSIVE TRAINING PROGRAM FOR GENERAL MANAGERS OF LOCAL RETAIL FARM SUPPLY RETAIL BUSINESSES DEALING IN FERTILIZER AND…

A RESEARCH PROJECT WAS CONDUCTED BY THE IOWA AGRICULTURAL AND HOME ECONOMICS EXPERIMENT STATION TO DETERMINE THE INFLUENCE OF AN INTENSIVE TRAINING PROGRAM FOR GENERAL MANAGERS OF LOCAL RETAIL FARM SUPPLY BUSINESSES DEALING IN FERTILIZER AND AGRICULTURAL CEHMICALS. CHANGES IN KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES AND PERFORMANCE, INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT AND…

The 12 states comprising the North Central Region have been affected in similar ways by the farm crisis of the 1980s. Statewide surveys show sizeable proportions of farm operations that are experiencing moderately high levels of financial stress. The problems caused by chronic stress on family structure and functioning, the loss of mainstreet…