Cabarrus Today

Thanks to the Extension partnership, local farmers in Cabarrus County are thriving despite the COVID-19 pandemic taking a toll on economies around the world. 

Mike Smith, the owner of Big Oak Farm, is one of the people who have seen positive effects stemming from the coronavirus. 

"We really expected to be impacted a lot worse than we have been by the virus," Smith said in a video post to the Cabarrus County Government Facebook page on June 26. "[The virus has] improved it. We just had more people that are coming to buy our products. It's very surprising to me." 

Smith said the NC State Cooperative Extension Partnership program may be to thank for the boom their business is seeing. 

The Extension is the state's largest outreach provider, according to the information posted on the program's website. It aims to provide North Carolinians with research-based agriculture, food, and youth programming. It generates $300 million in economic impacts for the state. 

Robbie Furr, the county extension director, said in the Facebook video that there are several ways the program tries to help those interested in farming. People can learn more about starting farming from scratch through their six-week intensive program to learn the business side of agriculture. 

The program can also help farmers who have been working for many years or those who have inherited farmland and aren't sure where to start.

"We literally come onsite and provide technical assistance by looking around, seeing what they're expertise is, what the land will work with, and what the market is looking like," Furr said in the Facebook video.