Working hand-in-hand with its Texas A&M System partners, the state legislature, and the communities it serves, the mission of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service to serve Texans through community-based education has remained unchanged for almost a century.
The Texas A&M Research and Extension Center of Corpus Christi serves as the District 11 office of AgriLife Extension. With a vast network of 18 county Extension offices and some 50 professional educators, spanning from Corpus Christi to Brenham, the expertise provided by AgriLife Extension is available to every resident in our district. AgriLife Extension custom-designs its programs to each county through grassroots community issue identification.
Extension Vision
Help Texans Better their lives.
Mission
Through the application of science-based knowledge, we create high-quality, relevant continuing education that encourages lasting and effective change.
Capabilities
We provide programs, tools and resources that teach people how to improve agriculture and food production, advance health practices, protect the environment, strengthen our communities, and enrich youth.
Donnie Montemayor
District 11 Extension Administrator
Email: donnie.montemayor@ag.tamu.edu
Phone: 361-265-9203
Family & Community Health
Family health, wellness and safety issues are of high importance within every county in the district. Our population is aging while young families continue to grow. The safety of our youth, the accident prevention of the elderly, and the proper nutrition related to all ages can provide millions of dollars in health savings to our clientele and our communities.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension in each county focuses on each area of importance and provides principals to live a longer, better, and healthier life.
Agriculture Programs
Agriculture is a main contributor to the Extension District 11 Coastal Bend economy. The approximate value of agricultural production and agribusiness on the Texas Economy is 2 billion dollars annually. Major commodities include beef cattle, cotton, other field crops, forage and hay production.
The district is known for agricultural diversity along the Texas coastal bend and upper coast. District 11 Extension also maintains tremendous marine resources that boost the Texas coastal economy. The district is also in the eastern part of the Eagle Ford Shale that continues to prosper from it’s economic growth.
County Extension Agents, with support from Extension Specialists, provide expertise locally in supporting the agricultural and natural resource sustainability in the region. Agents lead local county based stakeholder committees identifying local issues. These issues provide the focus for local, regional and state programming. County Extension Agents address issues by providing timely educational resources and result demonstrations, allowing growers and producers use of research based information so they can make better decisions within their operations.
4-H & Youth Development
District 11 youth programs coordinated and offered by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service reach approximately 104,654 youth through organized 4-H clubs and curriculum enrichment programs. 4-H clubs have an annual enrollment of 5,500 youth while school-based curriculum enrichment programs and special interest groups reach over 99,000 youth.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agents residing in all 18 counties in District 11 are responsible for educating our youth and training our volunteers to assist in reaching these youth. District 11 has 1,210 enrolled volunteers through direct teaching. The volunteers are engaged to assist County Extension Agents in educational efforts in their counties. These efforts allow us to expand our capacity and reach more youth to develop life skills needed to become successful adults.
Disaster Preparedness & Recovery
AgriLife Extension received special legislative funding to create a new unit of agents specifically dedicated to emergency preparedness and recovery. The unit known as Disaster Assessment & Recovery (DAR) is comprised of 26 DAR Agents, 4 Area Chiefs, and 9 Statewide Staff. 3 DAR agents sit in District 11 and are based in Bellville, Victoria, and Corpus Christi. DAR agents are program specialists that work in areas of Preparedness, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery and can be deployed to any disaster event in Texas or other states as needed.
Since COVID DAR Agents have become a key partner in Disaster Response in Texas along with all other state partners, stakeholders, and other Texas A&M University System agencies to better prepare, respond, assist, and educate Texas.