NORWICH – A county funded position at the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chenango County will exist for another year after getting approval from the county’s Planning and Economic Development Committee on Tuesday.

The position of grazing specialist at the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chenango County (CCE) was put into play in 2012, when Chenango County government agreed to help fund the position at a cost of $17,000 per year for three years. With the third year of that agreement starting this month, CCE sought authorization of the release of the remaining funds to keep the position going until August, 2015.

According to Ken Smith, Executive Director of the CCE of Chenango County, the grazing specialist has been influential in ag economic development in the county. With a slight uptick in small dairy farms over the last year that led to more than a dozen new farming operations in Chenango, there’s evidence the position is fulfilling its purpose, Smith said.

“There has been a lot of coming and going of manufacturing and different businesses in the county, but over the last 150 to 200 years, dairy farming and grazing-based farming have been the cornerstone of our local economy,” he added. “One of the things we have been working on lately is promoting Chenango County as a destination for farmers.”