By Ryan McGeeney
U of A System Division of Agriculture
The Cooperative Extension Service has received two of the most valuable non-cash donations “in recent memory,” said Brian Helms, director of stakeholder relations for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
The two gifts include irrigation system equipment and a combine.
The irrigation system was donated by Bruce Holland, executive director of the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, and includes a pump, four stationary irrigation guns and irrigation pipe. The system is being donated to the Department of Crop, Soils and Environmental Sciences, Helms said.
Irrigation systems are key in getting the appropriate amount of water to crops without wasting the resource. The estimated value of the system Holland donated is $10,000.
The Cooperative Extension Service was also the recipient of a donated Gleaner model F-3 research plot combine, donated by G&H Associates and Ronnie Helms of Stuttgart, Arkansas. (Ronnie Helms is not known to be related to Brian Helms.) The estimated value of the combine is $60,000. It is being donated directly to the Plant Pathology Research and Extension program at Newport, Arkansas.
“These donors are really generous, and I think it’s the relationships our faculty build in the field that really open the door and foster these gifts to the Cooperative Extension Service,” Helms said. “And that’s what we’re trying to do—cultivate long-term relationships with people who want to support the work of the extension faculty.”
To learn about supporting the work of the Cooperative Extension Service, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.edu.
