Weld County native Keith Maxey has been named director and livestock agent of the Weld County office of Colorado State University Extension. He succeeds Bill Angell, who resigned in January to become livestock manager of the Nebraska State Fair.

Maxey, 56, has been at the office as a 4-H agent and dairy specialist for 15 years and served as interim director after Angell resigned. His new job begins today.

“I never really looked at becoming director until the last couple of years. I came back to the office to be the dairy agent and 4-H development agent because that was what I liked doing, that was what I enjoyed the most,” Maxey said.

But in the last couple of years, he added, the opportunity presented itself for him to get involved in the administrative side of extension and with the resignation of Angell, he decided to apply for the director position at the Weld office.

“I just figured now was the time,” he said.

Lou Swanson, a vice president and state extension director at CSU, said Maxey was a logical choice not only because of his knowledge of Weld County, but his experience with CSU Extension. He said the search process for a 4-H and adult livestock agent at the office will begin with the promotion of Maxey.

“We don’t want to hurt extension or the office just because someone within is promoted. So we will begin to work on that position within our budget,” Swanson said, giving much of the credit for getting the Weld director position filled to JoAnn Powell, the northern regional director of extension.

Maxey was raised between Greeley and Kersey on a dairy farm that continues to be in the family. He still makes his home near that dairy.

After graduating from Platte Valley High School, he earned a degree in animal science from Colorado State University. Shortly after graduation from CSU, he joined the National Holstein Association as a field representative in the north central area, which included Colorado. Later he worked in the same capacity in Virginia and North Carolina. From there, he moved to Iowa and the Midland United Dairy Association working with producers in the area of promotion and marketing.

He returned home to go into partnership with his father, George, in the family dairy for six years before accepting the position as executive director of the American Dairy Goat Association in North Carolina, where he spent another six years before returning to become the dairy and 4-H development agent at the Weld office.