Advice from the Field

KEVIN MALLOW KNOWS WHAT IT TAKES TO ENJOY A CAREER IN AGRICULTURE

For CU alumnus Kevin Mallow, being raised on a farm near Walters set the stage for a career in agriculture. After earning a Cameron degree in 1988, he started his career as an Extension agent in Oklahoma, moved to Colorado to take on the same role, and now runs the agriculture program for the Southern Ute Indian tribe. He has practical advice to offer college students who want to enjoy a similar career.

“When I graduated from Cameron and people asked what I wanted to be, I said I never wanted to work in an office,” Mallow says. “I laugh now because you never know what you’re gonna do until you go do it. I’ve been in the field a lot, but there’s a lot of office time too.”

When he started his career as an Extension agent in Oklahoma, he relates that he was primarily a 4-H agent in Coal and Atoka counties, working with kids, schools and livestock. When he moved to Colorado to be an Extension agent in 1992, he was an agricultural agent, completing programs in crop production, livestock production, horticulture, master gardener, weed management, insect management, rodent management, forestry and small acreage agriculture. He also managed the 4-H livestock program.

“My advice to college students is when you choose a degree, spread it out,” Mallow says. “Learn as much as you can in the different areas of agriculture. Everyone wanted an animal science degree, but it’s hard to find jobs in animal science. There are more jobs in crop science. I have a B.S. in agriculture with a concentration in agronomy and an animal science minor. That opened up more opportunities. Don’t corner yourself too much in one area.”

He also stresses the importance of working in the field. “It’s important to go out and get some experience. I was raised on a farm, so I was driving tractors when I was 9 years old. By the time I was 17, I was working for the neighbor, taking care of his cattle, doing a real job. So many kids today go to college with an idea of what they want to be, but they’ve never really done it. It’s important to get some experience and utilize that experience to know what you want to do.”

While some may not see the link between agriculture and technology, Mallow says it just isn’t so. The challenge today is keeping up with technology.

"I feel like everything “The technology is changing so quickly, and the hard part I have done and continue is knowing when that change to do goes back to my is needed. When someone says they bought a drone, I time at Cameron." have to ask if they know how to use that drone. I look at when is a drone a tool and when is it a toy. In many cases, it’s a toy. In many other cases, it’s a fabulous tool. People say they’re using a drone and a computer system and GIS to inject fertilizer using all that technology. My question is, how has the bottom line changed? If they say, 'What?', the drone is a toy. If they say, 'Yes, I’m able to put on less fertilizer, I’m able to save money

in this area because of the technology and the technology pays for itself,' then it’s a tool.”

When he served as an Extension agent in La Plata County, Colorado in the early 1990s, Mallow found himself in a recreation area that was experiencing major population growth.

“I was the Extension agent when Durango hit its fastest growth period,” he says. “That meant a lot of urban dwellers were moving to a rural environment. They’d never lived anywhere but in an apartment and wanted to buy 40 acres and raise cows and chickens or have a subsistence farm. A subsistence farm in Durango isn’t feasible, because of the extremely short growing season.

“As an Extension agent, that’s an example of one of the things you learn quickly. You have to dig in, understand growing seasons, and so forth. I did a lot of teaching the basics of land management – that’s how I spent a big part of my career as an Extension agent.”

“As an Extension agent, you try to measure impacts, and that’s hard to do. You know that you’re making a difference when people trust you, when people want to come and see you. These are people jobs – you’ve gotta know that you can deal with people and work with them and enjoy that interaction with people. I know I do.

Kevin Mallow checks a field of alfalfa grass mix hay for alfalfa weevils and spiders mites. In 2003, he left the Extension service to work for the Southern Ute tribe.

“When I left the Extension office in Durango, the number of people who called me and said they depended on me, they trusted me - that’s when I knew I had made a difference for some people. When you’re an Extension agent and people want you to stop by their house, then you know you’ve made it. They want you to come see them. People bring you their problems. They talk about things that they can’t figure out themselves. When you get in tune with it, and you’re trying to take a look and they have irrigation problems or crop problems and you can help them and show them the reason, it makes a difference in their lives. Basically an Extension agent is a problem solver. Helping people is what it’s all about. It makes you feel good because usually, you aren’t giving them the answer, you’re guiding them to the answer.”

As an agriculture professional with the Southern Ute tribe, he’s worked in water quality, soil and water conservation, irrigation construction, water rights management, municipal water system construction, livestock production, pest management, crop production and even a little horticulture, turf management and gardening. In his current position, he is the agriculture division head in charge of agriculture administration, custom farm programs, agricultural land rehabilitation, mosquito control, weed control, fence contracts, and prairie dog and gopher control. He also represents the Tribe on local boards.

More than three decades after graduating from Cameron, Mallow credits his college experience in Lawton with his successful career.

“The thing that stands out from my time at Cameron is the people in the agriculture program. Dr. Charlie Reick taught agronomy and plant science. He was amazing. He had a photographic memory and was a speed reader. It was super to have him as a professor. Benny Doane in animal science and Gene Kennedy made a lot of difference in my life. They were very high-end professors who worked at a lot of large universities, but they decided to come back to a smaller college. Benny was a sheep specialist, and Charlie was one of the top agricultural chemical guys in the nation.

“After I graduated, I went to a lot of places around the country and met people who got degrees from bigger universities. I feel like I got a better education than they did. It was more one-onone, and in a more socially friendly environment. I feel like everything I have done and continue to do goes back to my time at Cameron.”

- Janet E. Williams