Extension′s role in disseminating information about climate change to agricultural stakeholders in the United States Linda Stalker Prokopy & J. Stuart Carlton & J. Gordon Arbuckle Jr. & Tonya Haigh & Maria Carmen Lemos & Amber Saylor Mase & Nicholas Babin & Mike Dunn & Jeff Andresen & Jim Angel & Chad Hart & Rebecca Power Received: 2 October 2014 /Accepted: 16 January 2015 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015 Abstract The U.S. Cooperative Extension Service was created 100 years ago to serve as a boundary or interface organization between science generated at the nation′s land grant universities and rural communities. Production agriculture in the US is becoming increasingly complex and challenging in the face of a rapidly changing climate and the need to balance growing crop productivity with environmental protection. Simultaneously, extension budgets are diminishing and extension personnel are stretched thin with numerous, diverse stake- holders and decreasing budgets. Evidence from surveys of farmers suggests that they are more likely to go to private retailers and consultants for information than extension. This paper explores the role that extension can play in facilitating climate change adaptation in agriculture using data from a survey of agricultural advisors in Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Nebraska and Climatic Change DOI 10.1007/s10584-015-1339-9 L. S. Prokopy (*) Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA e-mail: lprokopy@purdue.edu L. S. Prokopy : J. S. Carlton : A. S. Mase : N. Babin : M. Dunn Purdue University, 195 Marsteller Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA J. G. Arbuckle Jr. : C. Hart Iowa State University, 303c East Hall, Ames, IA 50011, USA T. Haigh University of Nebraska, 810 Hardin Hall, Lincoln, NE 68583, USA M. C. Lemos University of Michigan, 2504 Dana, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA J. Andresen Michigan State University, 673 Auditorium Road, E. Lansing, MI 48824, USA