Soil tests, 4-H, pesticide licensing, plant disease diagnosis, free test proctoring, business counselling. Most of it is cheap and most people in the county have never walked in.
509 W. Reed Street, Moberly · 660-269-9656
Open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday to Friday — a short window, so plan around it
extension.missouri.edu/counties/randolph
The office has moved and the staff have changed. If you are working from an old listing with a different address or a name from years back, throw it out.
Soil testing
Bring a sample to the office. About a cup and a half of dry soil, taken 6 to 7 inches deep. Results usually come back within two weeks with fertiliser and lime recommendations.
What the lab charges:
Soil pH — $6
Organic matter — $7 · Buffer pH — $7
Mehlich-3 for phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur and sodium — $10
Mehlich-3 micronutrients — $10
Cation exchange capacity — $15 · base saturation — $15 · soil texture — $15
Fertiliser and lime recommendation — $2
For a home garden, a pH test and a recommendation is $8. For a field, the Mehlich-3 panel plus a recommendation is $12 a sample. Either is cheaper than a season of guessing at fertiliser.
Do not send cash with samples. Cheque, card or an account. The lab analysed 55 samples from Randolph County in 2025.
Everything else the office does
Plant and insect identification — bring the sample in.
Plant disease diagnosis for field crops, ornamentals, vegetables, fruit and turf.
Free test proctoring for Missouri Online courses.
A resource library of print, video and audio material that any county resident can borrow.
Consultation for community groups — including help getting 501(c)(3) status, strategic planning, board development and volunteer management. If you are trying to start a non-profit in this county, that is a free service most people do not know exists.
Group process moderation, professional consultation and publications.
Extension also houses Small Business Development Center counsellors and a Missouri APEX Accelerator counsellor for government contracting — free business help, in Moberly.
Pesticide applicator licensing
Required by the Missouri Department of Agriculture for producers who buy or apply restricted use pesticides, and it has to be retaken every five years.
The rules changed in 2025. Producers now need a Category 20-CORE licence, with supplemental licences on top for soil fumigants, non-soil fumigants, or applying restricted use pesticides by drone, helicopter or aeroplane on your own or rented ground. If you have started flying a drone over your fields, that is a new licence.
Bring MU Extension publication M87, the Private Pesticide Applicator Reference Manual. Training covers safe handling, mixing and calibration, environmental consequences, chemical breakdown, required records, formulations, protective equipment, storage, Missouri pests and integrated pest management. Delivered in person, by Zoom, or online.
Thirteen Randolph County producers were trained and licensed in 2025.
4-H — six clubs, and here is where they meet
Open to young people 5 to 19. Clubs take ages 8 to 18; Clover Kids is for 5 to 7 with no projects, no animals and no competition. The year runs October 1 to September 30 but you can join any time. There is a small joining fee — ask, because it is not published. More than 75 project topics.
To join, call 660-269-9656.
Busy Busy Beavers — second Sunday, at the Extension office in Moberly. Maria Moyer, 574-356-3919; Marinda Hess, 660-676-6833
Clark Helping Hands — second Wednesday, Clark Christian Church. Heather Dougherty, 573-819-4364; Kelly Sharp, 573-489-4042; Lucy Burton, 573-982-9672
Neighborly Community — second Thursday, 6:30 p.m., The Lion’s Den, Cairo. Teresa O’Brien, 660-651-5396
Randolph County Builders — second Thursday, 6 p.m., Higbee. Joseph and Amy Perkins, 573-289-2276; Amanda Patrick, 660-998-9033
Randolph County Challengers — second Wednesday, 7 p.m., Eastern Randolph Rural Fire Protection, Highway EE. Melissa Boots, 660-651-6699
Western Ramblers — second Sunday, 4 p.m., Huntsville Christian Church. Chrissy Dignan, 816-261-9840
Volunteering: you do not have to be a parent or grandparent. All volunteers are screened for child abuse, neglect and criminal records before acceptance and every year after, and get an orientation.
What 4-H did here last year
Eight in every hundred young people in Randolph County were reached through 4-H. 139 members in the six clubs, logging 1,529 hours of club work, with 528 projects enrolled.
Another 139 were reached through school enrichment, including eight classrooms hatching chicks and a financial literacy simulation called On My Own.
192 exhibits by 79 young people at the Randolph County Fair; 27 exhibited at the Missouri State Fair; 16 competed at the state 4-H shoot and two represented Missouri at the national shoot in Grand Island, Nebraska; two served as State Shooting Sports Ambassadors; 19 went to 4-H Day at the Capitol.
Most popular projects: photography, woodworking, arts and crafts, swine, shotgun, country cured bacon, Clover Kids, archery, cake decorating and poultry.
And the number that holds it up: 47 screened adult volunteers gave 4,700 hours, worth $163,513.
Master Gardener and gardens
Extension runs the Master Gardener programme locally — the Magic City Master Gardeners maintain the maze garden next to the mini train in Rothwell Park — and a Grow-A-Garden programme in Moberly.
There is also Randolph County EXCEL, a local leadership programme run through the Extension office.
Who is there
Linda Sharp, office manager · Michael Krauch, regional director · Jim Meyer, engagement specialist · Maria Moyer, youth programme associate · Jennifer Schutter, horticulture · Mary Sobba, agricultural business · Heather Conrow, livestock and statewide poultry · Kent Shannon, agricultural engineering · Jeremiah Terrell, human development · Valerie Tate, agronomy · Mark Christian and Paul Zacharias, small business · Kris Bockting, APEX Accelerator.
Most are field specialists covering several counties, so call ahead if you need a particular one — they are not all in the Moberly office every day.
From MU Extension’s Randolph County pages, its 2025 county annual report and the MU Soil and Plant Testing Laboratory’s published fee schedule, September 2026. Lab prices and staff change — call 660-269-9656.
