HANCOCK COUNTY — Lais McCartney knows a thing or two about how to cultivate a home garden. She also knows how to run a small farm.
The Knightstown woman is so knowledgeable, in fact, she was recently hired as the new agriculture and natural resources educator at Purdue Extension Hancock County.
McCartney was no stranger to the office. She had worked as program assistant to her predecessor, Roy Ballard, since 2018. She also assisted Ballard in his role as state coordinator for sustainable agricultural research and education. Ballard retired in 2019.
She’s mostly been confined to working at home or inside the office due to social distancing since taking over on May 11, but McCartney looks forward to the day she can get out and start meeting people, hopefully when restrictions lift July 4.
Her goal is to let the public know what a great resource the extension office can be, and to seek community input on how the office can best serve Hancock County.
“I hope more people will learn that the county extension office is there for their support by helping them with guidance based on research from Purdue and other… universities,” she said.
As a local extension of Purdue University and its wealth of knowledge, McCartney said the office can be an invaluable resource for information on a wide range of topics.
The local extension office — just across Apple Street from the Hancock County 4-H Fairgrounds in Greenfield — employs three educators who are on hand to address questions in three different areas.
McCartney covers agriculture and natural resources.
Cheryl Jones covers health and human science.
Brian Greer serves as the county’s extension director and covers 4H-related topics like youth development and work skills.
The educators lean on research done by Purdue and partnering universities to provide answers for the community.
For her part, McCartney answers questions about everything from how to grow tomato plants and troubleshoot tree issues to how to use technology to maximize returns at major farming operations. She can help anyone from backyard gardeners to commercial greenhouse operators learn how to battle pests and disease.
“If I don’t know the answer, there are so many faculty experts up at Purdue that I can reach out to for help. If I don’t know an answer, I’ll help find the answer,” she said.
McCartney was raised in Hancock County before earning a bachelor’s degree in biology from Purdue, with an emphasis on ecology and evolutionary biology.
She’s now pursuing a master’s degree in technology to learn more about the ways technology can play a vital role in agriculture.
Technology has been used to help farmers learn the most cost-effective ways to fertilize their land, among a host of other applications, she said.
“There are contractors who are working with big-scale producers like John Deere and Case International Harvester who are doing simulations with the same people who are doing space station work,” McCartney said.
“This technology is being used in agriculture just like it’s being used in space travel. It involves a lot of data and looking at what that data can do to help the farmers.”
McCartney loves using the knowledge she has access to as an educator to help people of all walks of life throughout Hancock County. “I’m super excited about the new job,” she said. “There’s something new to learn every day, and I want to help people with their lives and livelihood in whatever way I can.”
McCartney can relate to both backyard gardeners and local farmers alike.
She and her husband, Patrick, run a small farm in the hilly Blue River valley region of Knightstown. It’s what she calls a homestead farm, with honeybees and goats sharing space on the rural property.
She’s the resident beekeeper, while her husband manages the maple syrup operation.
While they used to sell honey and syrup at farmers markets, they now sell mostly to friends.
McCartney’s farming roots run deep. Her dad grew up on a farm in Cumberland, and the family later moved to a dairy farm in Rush County. Her grandmother was forced to sell it when the dairy market crashed in the 1980s, when McCartney was about 10 years old.
Seeing the family’s struggle made a lasting impression on her.
She and her husband lived in Houston for 10 years while raising their four children while her husband worked for NASA, but they longed to get back to Indiana to raise their family.
They eventually made their way to the farm in Knightstown, where McCartney home-schooled the kids and taught them all about nature firsthand on the farm.
On her career path toward her extension job, McCartney worked part time as a Realtor while homeschooling the kids, now ages 16 through 23.
Her former boss, Erin Lowder, at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services in Greenfield, said McCartney’s work ethic and love for teaching and agriculture make her a perfect fit for her new job.
“Knowing her work ethic and the way she raised her kids — out there learning everything they could about agriculture on the farm — I think Lais will do a great job as an educator,” she said.
Fellow extension educator Brian Greer agrees.
“We’re really excited to have Lais with us. I know she’s going to be a really good asset, especially working with small producers and our Hoosier Harvest Market and our Farmers Market at the Fairgrounds,” Greer said.
“She has a lot of experience with her own family farm, which will really help. She’s been doing a great job of making connections and trying to determine the needs in the county."
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At a glance
Purdue Extension-Hancock County
802 Apple St.
Greenfield
317-462-1113
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