Lifescapes Texas A&M
life sciences
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agriculture
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natural resources
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communities
Animal Science Celebrates 100 Years 21st Century Food Safety Extension ‘Connects’ with Inmates E-mail Notes from Norway Forest Service Leads Space Shuttle Recovery
The Agriculture Program • The Texas A&M University System
Looking Over the Horizon
Ag Program Legacies The Agriculture Program suffered a great loss with the sudden death of Charles Scifres in late July. Charley began his career at Texas A&M University, where he was a faculty member from 1969 to 1987. After serving as an administrator at Oklahoma State University and the University of Arkansas, Charley returned to Texas A&M in 2001 as associate vice chancellor and deputy director of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. In just over two years, he instituted several important initiatives, including the development of a Science Management Road Map to effectively focus our research programs for the future. One of Charley Scifres’ priorities was to nurture strong relationships between our research programs and industry. This past spring he led a series of Beef Industry Roundtables throughout the state, bringing our faculty together with producers. This issue of Lifescapes includes several stories, including one about the Beef Industry Roundtables, which help mark a very special occasion—the 100th anniversary of the department of animal science. Over those 100 years, our researchers made scientific advances that greatly impacted animal agriculture in the United States and the world. We shared vital new knowledge with producers, and we educated generations of students for the animal industry. Our focus today is on teaching, research and extension for consumers and an industry increasingly shaped by genetics and reproductive technologies, changing consumer demands and global competition. Our ability to maintain and enhance research and education programs in animal science or any area is always dependent upon resources. As I reported to you in the spring issue, Texas universities and state agencies anticipated funding reductions in the state’s fiscal year 2004-05 budget. Those cuts were taken, resulting in an effective reduction in state dollars for Texas Cooperative Extension of almost 5 percent. The Texas Agricultural Experiment Station budget was reduced by almost 9 percent. The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences budget is roughly even. One very positive development for the college is Texas A&M University’s commitment of funds for 44 new faculty positions in priority areas over the next four years. Although the budget situation is not ideal, we remain committed to our goals and to seizing every opportunity to deliver another 100 years of excellence, not only in animal science, but in all the areas of agriculture, natural resources, life sciences and human sciences in which we work.
Lifescapes (ISSN 1539-1817) is published three times a year by The Texas A&M University System Agriculture Program. Edward A. Hiler Vice Chancellor for Agriculture and Life Sciences Prairie View A&M University Tarleton State University Texas A&M University Texas A&M University—Commerce Texas A&M University—Kingsville West Texas A&M University Texas Agricultural Experiment Station Texas Cooperative Extension Texas Forest Service Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory Texas Wildlife Damage Management Service Published by Agricultural Communications Ellen Ritter, Head, Agricultural Communications Dave Mayes, Associate Head, Agricultural Communications Helen White, Production Editor Shana Hutchins, Contributing Editor Jon Mondrik, Art Director Send comments, questions or subscription requests to Lifescapes Editor, Agricultural Communications, Texas A&M University, 2112 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-2112. Or call (979) 845-2211, fax (979) 845-2414 or e-mail agprogram@tamu.edu. Visit our Web site at http://agprogram.tamu.edu for more information about our academic, research, extension and service programs and to sign up for our monthly e-letter, What’s New? All programs and related activities of The Texas A&M University System Agriculture Program are open to all persons regardless of race, color, age, sex, handicap, religion or national origin. Copyright 2003 by The Texas A&M University System Agriculture Program. Written material may be reprinted provided no endorsement of a commercial product is stated or implied. Please credit Lifescapes, The Texas A&M University System Agriculture Program.
Edward A. Hiler Vice Chancellor for Agriculture and Life Sciences
ON THE COVER Sheep graze at the Animal Science Teaching, Research and Extension Center near the Brazos River. See related story on page 2.
17,500 copies printed.
Not printed at state expense. MKT-3475
C O N T E N T S
Vo l . 3 N o . 3 , Fall 2003
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T h e Te x a s A & M A g r i c u l t u r e P r o g r a m
FEATURES
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A Century of Success: Animal Science Turns 100 2 Beef Cattle Short Course 6 World’s biggest beef school still going strong
Beefing Up Links to Cattle Industry 8 Irradiation 10 Notes from Norway 14 E-mail glimpses from a Fulbright researcher
Helping Hands 18 Master Gardener volunteer blooms in Bexar county
Big Farm Bill Sign-Up 20 Extension, Farm Service Agency partner to reach producers
Extension Goes to Jail 22 Teaching prisoners life skills via TV link
Space Shuttle Down 25 Texas Forest Service leads largest recovery effort
A Nature to Nurture 28 Texas teacher continues to impact education even in retirement
Jerrold Summerlin
Animal Science Archive
Beam of electricity zaps food pathogens
18 DEPARTMENTS In Memoriam 9 Site Seeing 13 Trailblazers 23 Frontiers of Discovery 24 Spanning the Globe 27 Giving Matters 30 Historical Marker 31
Mark Beal
State Gems 32
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Animal Science Turns 100
Milestones for the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M 2
1876
by Edith Chenault
A Century of Success rosty vapor escapes from the freezer as it’s opened. Dr. Clare Gill moves foam board aside to lift out what resembles an ice tray filled with tiny pellets of genetic material preserved at minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit. What Gill, an assistant professor with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, holds is DNA meticulously saved from early crossbreeding and genetics studies at research stations in Angleton and McGregor. The genetic material, a key part of crossbreeding studies conducted more than a decade ago, is helping Gill and other scientists map the cattle genome. This DNA collection is unique, says Dr. John McNeill, head of the department of animal science, because it comes from generations of cattle bred deliberately for specific traits. “You can’t just walk in and find that kind of population (of cattle),” he explains. These thousands of pellets of genetic material also symbolize the connection between past and present for the department, which this year marks its 100th anniversary. “I want to make sure that we maintain the legacy that got us here, and at the same time adapt that legacy to fit the future,” says McNeill. Animal science began at Texas A&M on Sept. 1, 1903, when the department of agriculture was divided into three units: animal husbandry, plant husbandry and farm husbandry. At its beginning, the founding faculty taught students how best to care for animals from their own practical knowledge and experience, says Dr. H. O. Kunkel, dean emeritus of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The aim was to help students do a better job when they returned to the farm. Now, a century later, the “science” in animal science has become paramount, with students exploring new vistas in research-driven fields for careers that take them far from the barnyard. The department grew up with the state’s two major agricultural agencies, developing a strong research arm within the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, founded in 1888. It also built a tradition of outreach and public service through Texas Cooperative Extension (formerly the Texas Agricultural Extension Service), created in 1914.
Extension has helped the department maintain strong educational ties with ranchers and farmers. By 1941, animal science and Extension were planning short courses together. The Beef Cattle Short Course, organized 49 years ago, still attracts more than 1,000 producers each year. Department faculty with Experiment Station appointments are engaged in research in such fields as livestock feeding, nutrition, crossbreeding, reproduction, physiology and meat and fiber production. The department seeks to enhance its national reputation as a research leader with its newest initiative, the bovine mapping project with Baylor College of Medicine. The university, led by Texas A&M System Regent Anne Armstrong, put together a group of researchers, government and industry stakeholders who developed a $50 million initiative on the sequencing of the genome of the cow.
Photos: Animal Science Archive
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The cattle industry, the state of Texas, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and governments of several other countries have pledged half of the funding needed. The rest comes from a $25 million matching grant from the federal National Institutes of Health, which has supported work on mapping the human genome. A key part of the research contributed by Texas A&M is those frozen pellets of genetic material. Considered a library of 45,000 individual pieces of the bovine genome, each represents a clue to how the genome fits together.
Right top: Dr. Raymond O. Berry, professor of animal husbandry from 1952 until 1960, demonstrates how to make an injection while students look on. Right bottom: John Riggs evaluates a forage demonstration plot. In the late 1930s Riggs determined a key nutrient in alfalfa was carotene.
1888 George W. Curtis, professor of agriculture, publishes Horses, Cattle, Sheep and Swine, one of earliest textbooks on animal husbandry.
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1900
Jerrold Summerlin
Opposite: Dr. Clare Gill evaluates a plate of DNA samples in her lab at Texas A&M. In the background are the liquid handling robots used for genomics.
Department of Agriculture divides into departments of animal husbandry, plant husbandry and farm husbandry.
First scientific studies conducted on crossbreeding in cattle, a practice now nearly universal in the cattle industry.
1903
1920 1906 Fever tick eradication program begins, saving Texas cattle industry from devastating disease.
1932 Vaccine, still in use today, developed for soremouth in sheep.
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Photos: Animal Science Archive
The Baylor College of Medicine is leading in the DNA sequencing effort; Texas A&M scientists help interpret and analyze the data to determine the exact order of the building blocks that make up the chromosomes. Gill likened sequencing to developing a detailed road map. Some genetic markers—like major cities—have already been located on chromosomes.
Above: Judges at the annual department of animal science’s Little Southwestern Stock Show take a break with Texas A&M faculty, including Fred Hale and Dr. Zerle Carpenter, center, early 1960s. Right: Dr. O. D. Butler judges hams at the annual Saddle and Sirloin ham auction, 1950s.
“We’ve developed a crude map, but to find a gene, we need finer and finer resolution,” Gill says. That’s much like locating a particular city street and then a building on that street. The benefits for cattle producers and human medicine are numerous, Gill says. For example, cattle are sometimes selected for the ability to gain weight efficiently, so their genes could unlock the secrets of obesity in humans. Or the selection of dairy cattle for bone strength and density could help scientists understand osteoporosis. Finding a gene that blocks reproduction could help childless couples have babies. The department is already well known in the area of animal
reproductive biology. Associate vice chancellor Dr. Fuller Bazer’s research and graduate education programs have advanced scientific understanding of uterine biology, pregnancy and reproductive efficiency in livestock. The largest animal science department in the nation offers four majors: animal science, food science, human nutrition and dairy science. Today, more than half of its students are women, and most come from urban areas. “We get highly educated, extremely bright students who don’t have, a lot of times, much rural exposure,” McNeill says. Therefore, the type of education these students receive has flipflopped from the department’s earliest roots. “We used to get these kids in like me, knock the bark off of them and give them exposure to something besides ranch life,” he explains. “Now, we have to teach them something about production agriculture.” That is why the Animal Science Teaching, Research and Extension Center is so important, McNeill says. Built west of the campus and dedicated in 1998, the center allows students to have hands-on experience with livestock. Its facilities, considered among the best in the country, include an animal behavior center and classrooms and labs where animals can be brought in for teaching purposes. “We still teach animal production techniques as part of our core curriculum,” he says, but essential courses also include business management, finance, risk management and biotechnology. The department’s commitment to teaching students both on campus and across the industry is a reason for its longevity, says Dr. Zerle Carpenter, the former Extension director who headed animal science in the early 1980s. When he came to interview for a faculty position in the summer of 1961, the Beef Cattle Short Course was under way. “I was impressed how the department was committed to teaching young people to be productive in the livestock and beef industry,” Carpenter says. “The producers who came to the short course also seemed so close in their relationships with the faculty and the department.” An array of department workshops and programs annually train nearly 2,000 producers and industry representatives in all phases of meat production and marketing. In addition, the meat science faculty has trained nearly 1,000 meat processors from the United States and 200 from other countries on HACCP regulations, says Dr. Jeff Savell, professor and holder of the E. M. Rosenthal meat sciences chair. HACCP, or Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points, is the scientifically based approach to meat inspection that replaced the
Congenital malformations in piglets found to be caused by vitamin A deficiency in sows.
Performance testing of beef cattle begins.
Techniques developed to eradicate screwworms in Texas livestock.
Early 1930s
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1950
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1931-39
1948
Pioneering work conducted on livestock embryo transfer.
Ram Performance Test initiated at Sonora Station.
Texas A&M Lifescapes
Animal Science Archive
A Century of Success
Students and lambs at the annual Little Southwestern Stock Show in the early 1950s.
old “poke and sniff” system of physically inspecting all carcasses, he explains. More recently, the meat science faculty has begun a comprehensive food safety training program for the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. The classroom, lab and meat processing facilities of the Rosenthal Meat Center, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, make such courses possible, Savell says. Research and testing by the meat science faculty in the 1970s convinced the industry to make meat more tender by stimulating it electrically, now a standard practice, he says. The department’s equine program also has kept up with changes in the horse industry, says Dr. Gary Potter, a professor in the program. Texas boasts more than 1 million horses, and the industry is second only to beef cattle in livestock contributions to the state. In the late 1960s, then-department head Dr. O. D. Butler began building one of the leading horse programs in the country, Potter says. Butler brought in Dr. B. F. Yeates, who established a flourishing horse program for Texas 4-H youth. The equine program also has nationally recognized research in defining nutrition and exercise needs for race and performance horses. It’s particularly focused on bone quality in young horses to reduce the frequency of injury, Potter says. A student Horsemen’s Club in the department was the forerunner of the Texas A&M women’s equestrian team, which became a varsity sport in 1999. The English and Western riding teams together boast more than 55 members. The Western team has been national champions for the past two years, and the English team is ranked in the national top 10. But this isn’t the first outstanding student team that animal
Animal Science at a Glance • Last fall’s enrollment was 1,113 students, making Texas A&M’s animal science department the largest in the nation. • Last year, the department awarded degrees to 250 undergraduate and 45 graduate students. • More than 10,000 students have received undergraduate and graduate degrees in the past 100 years. • Sixty-five animal science faculty members teach, do research and conduct extension educational programs throughout the state. • The animal science degree program prepares students for careers in business, communications, technology, law, human medicine and genetics, in addition to more traditional roles in livestock production, meat science, veterinary medicine, Extension outreach, research, animal welfare, and food and nutrition. • Animal scientists are engaged in studies ranging from basic research in genetics, nutrition and physiology to applied research in livestock performance testing and meat science. The department received more than $3 million in grants and contracts for fiscal year 2002, making it one of the top units in the Agriculture Program. • In the past 25 years, the department has produced more graduates with advanced degrees in equine-related fields than any other institution. Texas A&M graduates direct most of the equine programs at other institutions and universities in the nation.
Web site: http://animalscience.tamu.edu/ansc/index.htm
Beef cattle genetics laboratory organizes.
Annual Texas A&M Horse Short Course begins and continues for 25 years.
First Sheep and Goat Field Day held at Texas A&M’s San Angelo center.
1964
1966
1972
1963 A&M College becomes Texas A&M University; schools become colleges.
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science has fielded. The department’s student judging teams have excelled since 1913, when an A&M team won the International Livestock Judging Contest in Chicago. Since then, student judging teams have won more than 30 national championships. In addition, the student horse judging team has won nine world championships. Pictures of the champion judging teams line the hallways that students walk to meet their animal science classes in the Kleberg Center.
1965
1969
Department of animal husbandry becomes department of animal science.
Studies lead to the development of USDA lamb yield grade standards.
1972 Trainings start for ranchers in use of artificial insemination and pregnancy determination in livestock.
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A Century of Success
Beef Cattle Short Course World’s biggest beef school still going strong by Blair Fannin
t’s the highlight of the world’s largest beef educational training event. Where else can you enjoy a prime rib dinner while rubbing shoulders with the Texas A&M chancellor, a regent or the head football coach? The annual Beef Cattle Short Course is famous for its fightin’ Texas Aggie prime rib dinner, but more importantly it’s known as the premier beef educational program. Held each August, the three-day event attracts more than 1,200 cattle producers from across the United States and abroad. “We have people from eight to 10 states and four to five foreign countries each year,” says Dr. Larry Boleman, short course chairman and Texas Cooperative Extension beef cattle specialist. “We have people attending with some of the largest cattle operations in the nation.” The short course, a long-time Aggie tradition, has undergone a number of changes through the years. Professor John K. Riggs held the first short course in 1954 in the Memorial Student Center ballroom, which held just 300 people. “Today, we have breakout sessions that would fill that room up,” says Boleman, who is also associate department head for animal science. Riggs was in charge of state beef cattle research at the time, and the short course was used as a platform for showcasing that research, conducted across the state by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. When word got out, more beef producers began making the trek to College Station to get information they could get nowhere else. The meeting outgrew the ballroom and moved to the Ramada Inn in College Station—then the largest venue around. One year, when the space filled to standing room only, Dr. O. D. Butler, then head of the animal science department, instructed all county Extension agents to give up their chairs and stand at the back of the room. But the short course fell on hard times some 20 years ago. A program change added short courses on forage, horse and sheep as well as beef—all under one roof. It became increasingly difficult to have a general program for everybody and attendance fell. Boleman took over the short course program in 1990 and began working the phones, calling beef breed associations. “I told them we needed exhibitors,” he recalls. “I told them
Photos: Jerrold Summerlin
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Above: Legendary prime rib dinner highlights the three-day program. Right: Attendees learn freeze branding techniques demonstrated in Pearce Animal Pavilion.
we needed their help to plan the program.” “That year, we had 400 people registered, with seating for 300,” Boleman says. “I had closed-circuit television brought in so those sitting out in the foyer could watch the programs.” E. C. Larkin, publisher of Gulf Coast Cattleman magazine and a short course attendee since the 1970s, says, “It was an example of overwhelming acceptance of how many people were interested in beef education.”
Department moves to new Kleberg Center from Animal Industries building for more teaching and lab space.
First embryo-transfer foal in the United States produced.
Report released on groundbreaking research that leads to widespread changes in beef marketing, such as renaming of some meat grades.
Genomics research on beef cattle initiated in animal science.
1978
1979
1983
1984
1978 Food science and technology faculty designated.
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1980 Graduate degree programs in animal nutrition re-designated as programs in nutrition.
1983 E. M. “Manny” Rosenthal Meat Center opens, providing additional space for meats classes and research labs.
Texas A&M Lifescapes
A Century of Success The following year, there were more than 600 participants year. I’ve had people come to me and say ‘I had so-and-so tell and 50 exhibitors. That’s when Boleman and program organizme I need to come by and look at your stuff.’” ers ditched the cold cuts and struck a deal with Don Ganter, Boleman says new issues, unanticipated decades ago, continowner of the Dixie Chicken. A $5 meal coupon got a hamburgue to crowd the beef short course agenda. er basket. “When I was a student, it was a given that beef consumption “They had to go over there and eat in shifts,” Boleman says. would increase every year. Professor Riggs had us calculate “I don’t think they had ever cooked that many hamburgers for how many cows it was going to take to satisfy this demand. so many people.” “Then came cancer and heart disease concerns as well as In his third year as the short course guru, Boleman moved other health issues related to beef, but unsubstantiated. Beef the program to Rudder Tower, which offered more meeting consumption and production began to decline. Then the envispace, and attendance grew even more. ronmental issues came. My point is if you look at the old agen“We began to average about 1,200 people and got the idea of das, they were genetics and production. Now you have to deal having a featured dinner. I got with with so much more.” [Extension meat specialist] Dr. Davey “We began talking about such consumer Griffen, who agreed to come and cook for issues as taste, the quality of meat, and • 90 percent of the short course partici1,200 to 1,500 people.” putting out a consistent product. Overall, To promote the short course within the what we’ve had to do is balance the issues pants have fewer than 100 head of beef university, Boleman began to invite some of and the training with our regular produccattle. the school’s leaders to the dinner. tion practices.” • On average, 40 percent are attending Dignitaries such as former Aggie football As a result, half of the short course is for the first time. coach R. C. Slocum and former Chancellor devoted to the Cattlemen’s College, con• About 100 people help conduct the Dr. Howard Graves have dined with everycurrent sessions offering in-depth informaday ranchers and veterinarians from across tion on key management practices. event each year. the state. “That can be basic beef production, • The annual economic impact is $150,000 “They aren’t bashful in their conversarange resource, nutrition, animal breeding to Texas A&M University and $500,00 to tions,” Boleman admits. “I heard one rancher or health management,” Boleman says. the local community. ask Dr. Graves, ‘Now what is it you actually He believes that the short course will • 100 prime ribs are smoked at the do?’ Graves was cordial and politely continue to attract more high-end producexplained his job.” ers, individuals who are more accomRosenthal Meat Lab for the annual dinBoleman is quick to point out the many ner; the meat is prepared and served by plished and have profitability as a main benefits the short course provides to individmotive. They will want cutting-edge ideas the Texas A&M Meat Judging team. The uals active in beef production. in order to remain profitable. record serving time for 1,200 people is He says the short course has become so “Your casual breeder will attend less 22 minutes. popular because of high quality programintensive trainings that perhaps will be ming that begins with planning at the grass• 62 speakers were part of the 2003 short offered at the county and regional levels.” roots level. That’s why Boleman is toying with the course program. “That includes educators, producers and idea of hosting a two-day short course • Short course proceedings will contain breeders. We are giving the information that aimed at the more sophisticated producer. more than 300 pages; they also were they want in a friendly way and offering “Right now, we offer something for offered on CDs for the first time in 2003. everybody at every level. But that’s what many choices. Then we bring in the trade show, and there’s that intermingling among has led us to become the world’s largest producers and exhibitors.” beef training event.” “The bottom line is that this is continuing education for beef producers,” he says. Others use it as a place to network, says Leon Noack, a purebred Hereford breeder from Rockdale. “It’s not so much the short course for me, but the people that I meet there,” he says. “I always meet new people every
Short Course Highlights
Research and graduate programs initiated in molecular and cellular aspects of animal reproduction.
Beef cattle gene mapping project that identifies locations of growth, carcass and tenderness traits initiated at the Angleton research station.
1992
1990 1988 Extension Beef 101 begins to teach advances in beef research to retailers, food service distributors, restaurateurs, meat industry representatives and others.
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1991 Ranch to Rail program to evaluate cattle in feedlots begins.
1994 National Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points Alliance formed.
Meat Goat Performance Test established.
1995 1995 Discovery of the intestinal urea cycle in mammals, considered a first-line defense against the potential toxicity of ammonia.
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Beefing Up Links to Cattle Industry by Robert Burns o find better ways to work together, 18 individuals representing Texas beef producers, feeders, packers and retailers will meet with Texas A&M officials this fall as the new statewide Texas Beef Industry Roundtable. When the roundtable convenes Sept. 26–27 in College Station, one of the first orders of business will be to review feedback from industry roundtable discussions that took place over the summer in four regions around the state. “What the industry tells us is going to define the direction and quality of our programs now and in the future,” said Dr. Charles Scifres, associate vice chancellor and deputy director for the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. Scifres led the effort to organize the roundtable discussions with the beef industry until his death July 28. Others leaders include top administrators of Texas Cooperative Extension and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Regardless of where they met—Amarillo, Stephenville, San Antonio, or Overton‚ the agenda was the same: The ranchers talked; the administrators listened. The producers had been invited to tell what they saw as the good, the bad and even the ugly about the beef cattle research and education efforts offered by Texas A&M’s Agriculture Program. At each session, regional university partners were invited to participate, including West Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, Texas A&M–Kingsville and Tarleton University, among others. The administrators got an earful of what was right and wrong with their programs. What was said during one regional session often was echoed at the others. Steven Lastocvia, a rancher from Milam County, shook Extension’s tree a bit. “Extension has been so number-oriented in reports, I get a little concerned that it’s not putting enough emphasis on the real issues,” Lastocvia says. Cody Orman, a lifelong rancher from Burnet County, praised the work done by the Experiment Station on beef cattle genetics research. Bobby Wilson, a Navarro County producer, thought the agency could do better. “I think there’s a lot of redundant work—same research being done year after year,” he says. “Require researchers to make sure that a research proposal hasn’t been done before. Put full results on the Internet, not just in digest form. Post the good and the bad results.”
Bobby Wilson, Navarro County rancher (right), and John McNeill, head of the Texas A&M Department of animal science, participated in a regional roundtable meeting in Stephenville.
John Dudley, Comanche County rancher, says, “The work being done on the bovine genome has taken some bad press, but the potential aspects for human health are tremendous.” Freestone County rancher Dickie Hill of Fairfield feels he should put both the criticisms and the praise in perspective. “We can’t expect that Extension and the Experiment Station should solve all our problems. I think of them as partners.” The Texas A&M folks took everything in and kept their lips zipped. Not that they didn’t have answers to the criticisms. For example, Extension agents must do more paperwork because government guidelines require them to account for practically every hour of the day. That means lots of reports. The Experiment Station must rely more on funding from non-state sources to conduct research. Private funding agencies, for example, may have different research priorities than the Experiment Station scientists and their Texas clientele.
Texas Horse Industry Audit documents, for the first time, the economic significance of horses in Texas, the second largest livestock industry in the state.
Discovery of arginine deficiency that limits growth in piglets.
1998
1997 1998
Animal Science Teaching, Research and Extension Center dedicated, offering students “hands-on” experience with livestock.
1999 Women’s Equestrian Team elevated to varsity status, jointly managed with athletic department.
2000
Pasture to Packer program to evaluate lambs in feedlots begins.
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Robert Burns
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2000 2002 Department joins the International Bovine Bacterial Artificial Chromosome Map Consortium
Texas A&M Dairy Center closes after 50 years.
International Wolf Prize shared by Dr. Fuller Bazer for identifying proteins & mechanisms that regulate embryo and fetal growth & immune competence.
2003
2003 2003 Benchmark studies of cloned pigs show that clones are not exact replicas, but vary in personality and physical characteristics.
Fall 2003
Loss of Dr. Charles Scifres Mourned The Texas A&M Agriculture Program lost one of its top leaders in July with the unexpected death of Dr. Charles J. Scifres. Scifres, 62, was associate vice chancellor and associate dean for agriculture and life sciences and deputy director of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. He died at his home July 28. “Charley was a key member of our leadership team,” says Dr. Ed Hiler, Texas A&M vice chancellor for agriculture and life sciences and director of the Experiment Station. “All of us will deeply miss his leadership, his wonderful attitude, and his tremendous contributions to the Experiment Station and the Agriculture Program.” At the time of his death, Scifres was responsible for statewide oversight and management of the Experiment Station’s agricultural research programs throughout Texas. The agency has more than 460 scientists. During his two and one-half year tenure, one of Scifres’ top contributions was the development of a Science Management Road Map to position the Experiment Station for the future. Scifres had excellent academic credentials as a research scientist and had successfully led experiment stations in both Oklahoma and Arkansas. His career began at Texas A&M, where he served on the faculty from 1969 to 1987. Prior to returning to Texas A&M, Scifres worked seven years at the University of Arkansas, where he led both the College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences and the Experiment Station research system. Scifres earlier spent seven years at Oklahoma State University, first as professor and head of the agronomy department, then as associate director of the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station from 1990 to 1994. In his first stint with Texas A&M, Scifres rose from assistant professor to full professor in seven years, and in 1982 became the first Thomas M. O’Connor Professor of Range Science, a post he held for five years until his appointment at Oklahoma State. Scifres authored two books on range improvement and fire ecology and published nearly 150 articles in his field. He was an advocate of integrated brush management systems and their ecological impacts. He led a research team that conducted comprehensive studies of range ecosystems in South Texas. Scifres held two degrees from Oklahoma State. He earned his doctorate in agronomy (weed science and grazing lands) at the University of Nebraska in 1969. He is survived by his wife Julia of College Station; son Dirk and his wife Vickie Scifres of College Station; daughter Holly and her husband Thomas Wooton of Belgium; and four grandchildren. A memorial scholarship in Scifres’ honor has been established through the Texas A&M Foundation. For more information on the scholarship and how to make a contribution, contact Tom Pool, Agriculture Program Development Office, (979) 458-2204 or t-pool@tamu.edu.
In Memoriam
The administrators and faculty kept these responses to themselves. To do otherwise might limit a free and open discussion. “We’re not trying to fit the industry to any particular configuration; we are trying to create a design to best fit the industry,” Scifres said during the Amarillo session. At Stephenville, Dr. Ed Smith, Extension associate director, told the producers: “The bottom line is profitability. We are outcome based—we have to take into consideration what the consumers demand and integrate our effort with this need for profitability while sustaining environmental quality.” “We were more effectively engaged with the public 10 Texas Beef Industry Roundtable years ago, and that helped West Texas make us the top program in James Fuqua of Quanah the country,” Scifres said. Coby Gilbreath of Dimmitt “To reconnect with the John Hutcheson of Amarillo industry, we have to get communications reestablished,” Dr. R. Hollis Klett of Greeley, Colo. Scifres emphasized. Central Texas The dialog began with the John Dudley of Comanche Beef Industry Summit Dr. Gary Warner of Elgin Workshop in Fort Worth in Matt Swan of Paducah January 2001. One outcome of the sumTom Woodward of Decatur mit was a call for a series of South Texas roundtable discussions “for Alfred Bausch of Corpus Christi prioritizing issues, strategy Robert Fulbright of Hebbronville development and communiJay Gray of Gonzales cation across organizations.” Bob McCan of Victoria Cattle production in Texas is spread across 150,000 Bob Nunley of Sabinal farms and ranches and typiEast Texas cally involves more than 21 Robert Bruner of Huntsville million animals. Sales of Jim McCord of Gause these animals represent more Dr. Glenn Richardson of Longview than 40 percent of the annual cash value of Texas agriculPhil Sadler of Golden ture, with an overall economAlbert Thompson of Martinsville ic impact to the Texas economy measured at $7.3 billion. Scifres said the long-term goal is to build strong partnerships with Texas beef industry clientele, helping them to become stronger, and more globally competitive. “On the Texas A&M side, we’ve been told we don’t listen and that when we do listen, we don’t respond,”Scifres said. “Well, we’re listening, and we’re going to respond.”
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IRRADIATION Beam of electricity zaps food pathogens by Helen White
amburger patties, already packaged for retail and boxed in brown cardboard cartons, travel up a conveyor belt inside a high-tech, research facility at Texas A&M University. The cartons travel to a windowless, concrete room, where they are zapped with an invisible beam carrying 10 million electron volts of energy.
foods. Forty-two countries have issued approval for food irradiation technology in more than 240 foods. Irradiation is called a cold pasteurization process, and the food, in most cases, is exposed for only parts of a second without raising the temperature more than one and a half degrees. The appearance, taste and texture of the food remain largely unaffected, and nutrient losses are less than those caused by cooking. McLellan says reviews by the WHO show that food irradia—Dr. Michael Osterholm, Director of the University of Minnesota tion is no more hazCenter for Infectious Disease Research and Policy ardous than canning, drying, heat pasteurization or deep freezing. The burgers aren’t cooked—they have just been irradiated, Irradiation used to be done with radioactive materials, but making them the safest burgers you’ll ever eat. that’s a technology that’s quickly being superseded. Texas A&M scientists are convinced that what’s being done “Not many food companies wanted an active radioisotope in today to common hamburger is just the beginning of a coming their facility 24 hours a day because of safety and biosecurity revolution in food safety. issues,” says Dr. Andy Vestal, associate director of outreach for Researchers at the Institute of Food Science and Engineering the institute and Texas Cooperative Extension specialist. at Texas A&M are involved in one of the most promising food The institute’s electron beam (or E-beam) linear accelerator safety technologies of the 21st century—food irradiation with uses electricity rather than isotope technology to generate electron beam technology. The university’s new National energy, and it can be switched on and off like any other elecCenter for Electron Beam Food Research is the result of a $10 trical appliance. million cooperative research agreement between Texas A&M In fact, the E-beam works the same as another electron and the SureBeam Corporation. The commercial-scale research beam accelerator facility uses SureBeam’s patented electron beam and X-ray found in most technology to develop safe and efficient protocols for killing homes—the televiAnimal feeds, enzymes, baby bottle nipples, pacipathogens and pests in beef, poultry, fruits and vegetables. sion set. This private/public partnership gives Texas A&M a state-of“The back of the fiers, bandages, sponges, gauze, baby powder, femithe-art facility unavailable at any other university in the television picture nine hygiene products, potting soil, contact lens soluworld. tube fires electrons at tion, medical disposables and hospital supplies, cos“It is a great illustration of a well-defined research partnera high speed toward ship where both partners gain tremendously,” says Dr. Mark the screen,” explains metic ingredients, medical implants, wine bottle corks, petri dishes, labware, and food packaging McLellan, the institute’s director. “What we did is take the 24Doug Johnson, the hour clock and split it in half. SureBeam conducts its test marfacility’s general materials. ket and commercial processing research during half the clock manager. Source: Electron Beam: 21st Century Food and A&M conducts its research during the other half, ensuring “The electrons hit Technology, Institute of Food Science and Engineering, that the place remains a research facility and not a fully comthe red, green and Texas A&M University mercial operation.” blue dots on the The facility’s doors are open to other scientists, and research screen to make the picture; the screen’s half-inch plastic cover results can be 100-percent transferable to commercial applicashields you from the electrons. Their speed determines how tions. In July, the USDA designated the institute the National deeply the electrons will penetrate. In a television, each elecCenter for Electron Beam Food Research. tron has 24,000 electron volts of energy; our machines have 10 In operation since October 2002, the Electron Beam facility million electron volts of energy and will penetrate about 3 or 4 is attracting research projects covering a wide range of food inches in ground beef. That’s why you can’t sterilize a bologna safety issues, such as water quality and detoxification, food sandwich with your television.” additives, food toxicology and quarantine problems. How do electrons destroy harmful pathogens? Approved by the Food and Drug Administration, irradiation “A stream of energy-releasing electrons is accelerated to 99.9 destroys insect pests and such pathogens as E. coli O157:H7, percent of the speed of light using radio frequency or Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Listeria. The American Medical microwaves,” Vestal explains. “These electrons collide with the Association, the Centers for Disease Control and the World DNA of a pathogen such as E. coli. This damages or destroys Health Organization (WHO) endorse the safety of irradiated the DNA bonds so that the organism can no longer reproduce or is killed outright.” Mike Penn, senior operator, manages the precision applications of the electron “The more complex the organism, the more its DNA is susbeam system. ceptible to irradiation,” Johnson says. “An insect has more Inset: Cartons of food travel on the conveyor past a linear accelerator that DNA and would require less radiation than a bacterium, and a destroys pathogens with electrical energy. bacterium less than a spore or virus.”
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“Pasteurization, vaccination, chlorination, irradiation—during the 21st century, food irradiation will take its rightful place as the fourth pillar of public health.”
Photo: Jim Lyle, Illustration: SureBeam
What other items are irradiated?
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SureBeam
“We want to serve the safest product—one more level of food safety,” says Dean Peters, spokesperson for American Dairy Queen Corporation. During a 60-day test period at two stores in Minnesota, Dairy Queen provided customers with educational materials, surveyed customer feedback and monitored sales. Results were so favorable Left: The radura, the international symbol for irradiation, must appear on the packaging of that Dairy Queen expanded its test market any irradiated foods. Above: Irradiated foods are becoming more and serves irradiated burgers in more than 100 common in both grocery stores and restaurants. stores in Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Peters says the company plans to make irradiated burgers available in the Northeast and Southwest. “Once consumers are educated [about irradiation], there is a high level of acceptance,” Peters notes. In fact, some customers said they will buy the Dairy Queen burgers because they are irradiated, and half of those surveyed said they would pay 5 to 10 cents more for an irradiated burger. Peters estimates that the irradiated burgers cost only 1.2 cents more per patty. Besides the proven food safety applications, fear of litigation is another driving force behind the upsurge in irradiation by food companies. “When you have a major outbreak and someone becomes ill or dies, the question that is asked—and generally in front of a jury—is did you act in all best faith to deliver the safest possi-
Dairy Queen
The institute’s E-beam facility has three linear accelerators. Two of them use electron beams. Since electron beams can penetrate only a few inches, the third accelerator, used separately, creates X-rays for deeper penetration of thicker objects, such as a turkey or roast or larger packages of food. Long before commercial food is shipped to the facility, Johnson and his staff have painstakingly calibrated the radiation energy dosage or kiloGrays according to the type of food and the dimensions of the packaging. Within the E-beam chamber, each package is scanned with electrons. The accelerators produce a constant level of energy, and the speed of the conveyor belt controls the exposure dosage. These packages are not sterile. Like pasteurized milk, the targeted pathogens are killed, but the food products still have a limited shelf life. Johnson is quick to point out that the food could still become contaminated if the packages are opened and the food mishandled. It’s a myth that irradiation makes up for careless or unsanitary practices in food processing facilities. Meat and poultry products are inspected and must meet USDA safety standards before leaving the processing plant. Irradiation cannot reverse spoilage to make “bad” food “good” again. Irradiated foods are gaining acceptance. Since the FDA approved the distribution of irradiated ground beef in 2000, more than 6,000 retail outlets have offered it. According to Vestal, irradiated food began showing up in some grocery chains and restaurants in the Midwest and is slowly spreading across the country. Home food- delivery companies, such as Omaha Steaks and Schwan’s, now offer irradiated products nationwide. Although not yet widely available in the Lone Star State, Vestal says Texas may see growth in the next six months. Consumers can easily identify irradiated foods. The FDA requires that packaging be labeled with the “radura,” an international symbol for irradiation, plus labeling stating that the food has been treated with irradiation. Vestal points out that consumers still have a choice. “When this product goes into a grocery store, it’s alongside the non-irradiated product. The irradiated ground beef generally costs anywhere from 10 to 30 cents a pound more.”
Odds are that one in four Americans will experience a foodborne illness in any given year. Most of these 76 million cases are minor, but the Centers for Disease Control reports that 375,000 cases require hospitalization, and 5,000 result in death. Dairy Queen, one of the first fast-food restaurants to introduce irradiated burgers, began offering them in 2002 after research from SureBeam showed that irradiation reduced bacteria in patties.
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Texas A&M Lifescapes
ble product?” McLellan says. “And it’s difficult to answer that if you didn’t, or if your competitors are using a process proven to be safe and you are not.” McLellan predicts that, as people become more aware of the benefits of irradiation and products become more widely available, consumers may view irradiated foods as commonplace and expected. “There’s no question the day will come that you would no more consider buying raw ground beef that has not been irradiated than you would consider buying unpasteurized milk.”
Web sites: National Center for Electron Beam Food Research http://ifse.tamu.edu/E-beam/EBEAM.html SureBeam’s technology http://www.surebeam.com
Junior Master Gardeners A recent Texas Cooperative Extension study showed that kids who participate in gardening programs generally develop a greater interest in science. Click here for all the dirt on getting your kids involved with the Junior Master Gardener program in your area. http://jmgkids.com Mad Cow Disease Click here to learn more about mad cow disease, its diagnosis and USDA efforts to prevent its introduction into the United States. http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/bse/ bse-overview.html Insects in the City Termites, fire ants, white grubs and aphids. . . Insects in the City is where you can learn more about common insects found around your home and landscape and find science-based, pest management solutions. http://citybugs.tamu.edu Tailored for the Texas High Plains This Web site for the Texas A&M University
In early October 2001, during the national anthraxin-the-mail scare, Texas A&M University received a call from the U.S. Marshall’s office asking whether electron beam technology could destroy anthrax spores. Texas A&M researchers responded within a few hours with the recommendation that 30 kiloGrays would kill them. The U.S. Postal Service then contracted with an electron beam company to build the facilities that irradiate the mail delivered to Congress and the White House. “They zap the mail with about 60 to 120 kiloGrays for anthrax spores,” Dr. Andy Vestal says. “This is far above the 1.5 kiloGrays necessary to control E. coli in ground beef. Their concern is how much can we hit the mail with and still be able to read it.”
System Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Lubbock contains a wealth of information for agricultural producers and consumers. For example, if you live in Lubbock or La Mesa, go to the What’s New section to find out how much water your lawn used in the last week. Cotton producers can access results from variety demonstrations. The site also hosts data from the weather stations at Lubbock, La Mesa and Halfway, as well as links to other internet information sites for Texas High Plains agriculture. http://lubbock.tamu.edu Rio Grande Basin Irrigation Maps The critical nature of the water supply in the Rio Grande Valley and the need to rehabilitate outdated, leaky irrigation canals and ditches prompted the update of irrigation maps for the region. Information about the new Geographical Information Systems database maps is available from Extension’s District Management System Program Web site. These maps include the entire water distribution networks, the location of canals and pipelines, the current conditions and other details. The mapping project is funded in part by the Rio Grande Basin Initiative, which focuses on research and Extension activities that save water in the Rio Grande Basin. http://dms.tamu.edu
Texas Nature Tourism Information Center This Web site was established to help expand nature tourism in Texas. It is a central clearinghouse of information, resources and assistance. The site provides links related to outdoor recreation activities, marketing, financial analysis and more—all designed to help landowners, communities and businesses with nature tourism development. http://naturetourism.tamu.edu Food and Nutrition Good nutrition is vital, not just for children’s growth and development, but for people of all ages. Visit this site to learn more about food and nutrition programs and resources available through Texas Cooperative Extension. http://fcs.tamu.edu/food_and_nutrition.htm Financial Fitness Stretching a dollar and making every penny count is often easier said than done. Visit this site to get helpful information on how to create a sensible budget for your family. http://fcs.tamu.edu/monman/publications.htm
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Site Seeing
Here are a few Web sites from The Texas A&M University System Agriculture Program and USDA.
Electrons and Homeland Security
Notes from
Norway
E-mail glimpses from a Fulbright researcher by Kathleen Phillips
isheries researcher Dr. John Gold and his wife Chara, a lecturer in the biochemistry and biophysics department, packed up their teenaged son Jeremy and daughter Jessica at the first of the year and headed for Norway. The dog and cat stayed home; day-to-day routines were put on hold. It’s an arrangement that about 20 Agriculture Program faculty have chosen in the past 46 years as Fulbright participants. Below are notes from the Golds while they were in Norway, excerpts from an extended e-mail correspondence with communications specialist Kathleen Phillips. For a longer version of this story on the Web, see: http://agprogram.tamu.edu/ publications/lifescapes/fall03/
just returned from a week of sampling cod in the Trondheimsfjord. This is a huge fjord (2nd or 3rd biggest I think) in Norway. The boat is a large trawler, but it is set up for six people to work, eat and sleep. This is quite different from what I do at home, as I have never spent the night (as it were) on a boat at sea while sampling. At home, we go out (40-50 miles offshore) on day trips where we sample tissues for DNA work as fish are caught by fishers. The boat here was the research vessel of the Trondheim Biological Station, which is part of NTNU (the university where I am working). Date: 2/24/03 Sampling here also was Subject: minnows different, as we used a large Hi Dr. Gold: I made myself trawl that scoops up fish off a note last time we visited to the bottom (cod is a socontact you about the minnow called “ground” fish—they research, even though I know move around at depths of you are on the Fulbright >50 meters). Our trawl Research fellowship right now in went as deep as 100 Norway. Any news? How are the meters. Sampling tissue is family pets doing without y’all? nearly identical to what we do at Cheers, Kathleen home. We remove several soft organs (heart, spleen, liver, etc.) and store the tissue for subsequent Date: 3/1/03 DNA extraction in the lab. We Subject: RE: minnows also remove the ear Hi Kathleen: Good to hear from stones or otoliths, you. I’ve made only minimal which are used to age progress on the minnows. We have individual fish (just two students in our home in like trees, one counts College Station taking care of the the annual “rings” on pets, and everything seems to be the otoliths to detergoing well. There has been no mine fish age). snow here since late January On the trip, we worked and nearly all of the accumulatfrom around 8:30 a.m. ed snow is gone. Work goes until midtag (the evening well and family seems to have meal), served around 6:30 now adjusted—made easier p.m. Everyone takes turn because nearly everyone here is cooking—I prepared a Texfluent in English. We are all trying to learn Mex meal, which was fairly Norsk, but it is difficult because the Norsemen all want well received. Unfortunately to practice their English. (or fortunately), I forgot the really hot stuff (made from Date: 4/2/03 jalapeños and habaneros) that Subject: boating we had brought from home. Top: John, Chara, Jeremy and Jessica on John: Are you able to actually get out in the the dock of NTNU, the technical/ water—as opposed to lecturing, classroom setDate: 5/2/03 scientific university of Norway—about tings—to observe the environment where you Subject: teaching 2 km from Trondheim where we lived. are? Kp John: Why did you ask to be able to teach Bottom: On top of a small mountain graduate students though you were not required overlooking Alesund, a pretty town on to do so? Kp Date: 4/7/03 the northern coast. The path was 865 Subject: RE: boating steps from downtown to this view. I am on a Fulbright Research Fellowship, not Date: 5/9/03 a Teaching Fellowship. I am, however, involved Subject: RE: teaching in teaching graduate students (my choice). I Well, in my Fulbright “proposal,” I indicated
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that I would set up a list of papers for a journal club. At the sessions, I do a fair amount of explaining and discussing other works pertaining to the weekly topic. That, and a good deal of one-on-one with the students, are what I termed “teaching.” At home, I deal mostly with undergraduates in the classroom, and with postdocs and undergraduates in my laboratory. The reason I spend more time here with the graduate students is simply because I enjoy the personal/professional interactions with the up-and-coming researchers. Thankfully, the Fulbright award is very flexible, and interacting with the “natives” is mostly what the program is all about. Hilsen (norsk for “regards”), John Date: 5/12/03 Subject: all night on a boat Hi John: One of the differences in your work is that there you spent a week in a boat at sea. That experience must have been fabulous, in many ways, and a stretch in others. Do you see yourself seeking out overnight experiences in your research when you return? Cheers, Kathleen
my return. The library at A&M has been an invaluable tool. The online accessibility of scientific journals is wonderful! I have learned to knit (a typical Norwegian pastime) and am attempting to learn Norwegian. I will be glad to return to Texas and the familiarity and routine. I miss my friends, my job, our pets, my kitchen, my bicycle and cheap groceries. I don’t miss 10 months of allergies a year, the heat, flat land, bugs (namely fire ants) or the paucity of world news. I will attach a few pictures as well. Chara Date: 5/21/03 Subject: research insights? Hey John: What a neat family you have! As you approach the time to return to Bryan/College Station, what do you find yourself thinking about leaving behind/wishing you could stay longer for? And what are you longing to return to here? Cheers, Kathleen
Date: 5/22/03 Subject: RE: research insights? Hey Kathleen: The research is going well. Have mostly been involved in data analysis and interpretation (my specialty), and catching up on reading. Have also initiatDate: 5/15/03 ed a couple of small Subject: RE: all night on projects on Atlantic a boat cod, which along with Hi: Nah—we really don’t have Atlantic salmon are the opportunity to do that at THE fish in Norway. home. First, we don’t have a Chara and I really like it seaworthy research vessel at here. It’s a drop-dead gorour disposal, and “renting” geous place, the people are one would be cost prohibigenerally like us in terms tive. Second, we can get all of loving the outdoors, skithe samples we need from ing and hiking at every either the recreational fishers on opportunity, there’s almost “head” boats or in the fish houses where no crime or any need to be the commercial fishers sell their catches. fearful about walking at night In Norge, there are commercial fishers, and samples of some (even for the kids), and our species are obtained from the fish houses. The trip I was part colleagues have been a treat to of was a 20-year-plus sampling program from the same parts be around on a daily basis. of the Trondheimsfjorden. John There are downsides—it’s incredibly expensive, it’s a different culture, and now it’s not easy to sleep at Top: We packed a lunch and skied a night because there effectively isn’t any night. Date: 5/16/03 16 km loop one day in February near Subject: note from Chara It’s not work that I miss about Texas and the Lillehammer. John and Jessica paused USA. I am more comfortable in our culture, I Hi Kathleen: The NTNU Biological Station long enough for a pic! graciously gave me some desk space and an miss the people I work with in my lab, and I internet connection. This has allowed me to miss my friends in CS. I’m also looking forward Bottom: John on a boat on explore some work-related topics. I brought to being able to play tennis regularly and to Aurlandsfjordan—steep cliffs and about a two-inch stack of reprints to read work out daily at the gym. I am definitely not beautiful villages accessible which had been piling up on my desk at looking forward to returning to the Texas only by boat! TAMU. I have learned an enormous amount weather. John and am ready to develop several new labs upon
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Texas A&M Lifescapes
Date: 5/22/03 Subject: note for Chara Hi—When I travel I love to go to grocery stores. It gives me a good idea of how “real” people live. What have been the main differences in the basic food needs/wants/desires for your family there compared to your routine here? Cheers, Kathleen
Date: 6/5/03 Subject: what about the Atlantic cod? Hi John: Tell me about the Atlantic cod projects? Will they be finished before you leave? Now that you are soon headed home, I wonder: does a Fulbright return to his/her lab to approach science with new vigor or with great longing for what was in another land? Cheers, Kathleen
Date: 5/23/03 Date: 6/5/03 Subject: RE: note for Chara Subject: RE: We eat rather differently here. what about the The stores do not have the variAtlantic cod? ety of foods that we see in Hi Kathleen: The Texas. Vegetable and fruit project on Atlantic cod selection is far less. Bread is is just beginning. We rarely sliced or preserved. sampled several speciSpices are limited and often mens of cod from the old. Milk and cheese prodTrondheimsfjord and isoucts are great! Fish is abunlated/purified DNA. The dant. Chicken is rarely in DNA was then sent to our diet as it usually costs Texas where we will about $10 per pound. The attempt to generate a meats we eat most are ground beef genomic library. The plan (only about $5 per pound), salmon and shrimp is for a PhD student from (generally can find a bargain), and over here to come to moose and reindeer. Eating out Texas to learn DNA is rare. To go to a fast-food place, sequencing and how to you spend about $10-$15 per perisolate and characterize son for a meal. Most restaurants in hypervariable genetic the reasonable range start at $22 markers called per entrée. Pizza runs about $18 for microsatellites. a large, simple pie. Were research all Cooking has been an adventure. It that one was intertook me about four weeks to figure ested in, all in all, I out how to make pizza. The only pans think one is generthat are in the kitchen in the house we ally much better are renting are three springform pans, off in the USA relative to an 8x8 baking dish and an 8x13 baking most other countries in the world. dish. I was convinced that Norwegians So, no, I don’t think most Fulbrighters are might not cook at all. Finally, I was at a tempted to stay in their host country. colleague’s house, and her son was making cookies. He put them directly on bakepapir Date: 6/20/03 (baking paper) on the solid oven rack. All the Subject: see y’all back in Texas ovens have solid, not wire, racks. (Light bulb comes on in my Thanks for the notes. I hope to hear more about your advenhead.) tures when you return! Cheers, Kathleen Norwegian food is fairly bland and creamy. Breakfast is always bread and cheese and pickled fish. Lunch is uniformly smorbrod, which is bread with cheese and Dr. Gold and his family have returned home Top: Jeremy’s 16th birthday at the fish from Norway. He had this to say in an Aug. 27 lunch meat layered on top. Dinner is usually market in Bergen with Jessica and John. e-mail: “I’m teaching Gene 301H, writing peeled, boiled potatoes accompanying meat in You can sample caviar, shrimp, eel sauce and some overcooked green vegetable. grants (three due this week), directing personand whale! We eat things similar to home as I am the cook, nel, et cetera. Chara is back at work organizbut we also try some Norwegian fare as well. ing/directing the Gene 301 laboratories, and the Bottom: Main building at the biological For instance, I do a reindeer teriyaki rather than kids are back in school. It is VERY HOT here.” station. John’s office on the right, reindeer in gravy with onions. second floor. Chara’s is on far right, Items we requested when John went back to third floor. TX for a visit were herb tea, Trident gum, Goldfish crackers, Skittles, tortillas, hot sauce, spices, refried beans, mole sauce and Mac&Cheese.
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This is the first of an occasional series of profiles on outstanding volunteers who work in Texas Cooperative Extension programs. More than 150,000 Texans volunteer in Extension programs, a service valued at more than $420 million annually.
Jerrold Summerlin
Master Gardener Volunteer Blooms in Bexar County by Jorge A. Ramirez here are volunteers, and then there are star volunteers—the type who embrace their projects and take on more and more. Lee Perry, a graduate of Bexar County’s second Master Gardener class in 1990, is a star volunteer. “When I grow up,” says former Master Gardener coordinator Diane Pfeil, “I want to be a volunteer like Lee Perry. She’s very upbeat and energetic and willing to share what she knows. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and the new volunteers love her because she makes you feel welcome. She always wants to do something new and to better the organization.” Perry serves as coordinator for the continuing education program, working to create learning opportunities for the gardeners. Things were different when she became a Master Gardener 13 years ago, Perry remembers—volunteers didn’t specialize. “The organization was much smaller; there were only 50 members compared to the current 300, so everyone did everything. My first job was planting bluebonnets at a local nursery.” Texas Master Gardeners has grown to become the largest program of its kind in the nation. Each year more than 5,000 volunteers, working in 90 Texas counties, give more than a quarter-million hours of service in a broad range of horticultural efforts. Today Perry works about 25 hours a week for the Master Gardeners, and her enthusiasm and motivation for her work are clear. “I love to garden, and I want to give back to the earth. I enjoy giving back. Plus, gardeners are nice people.” She finds great satisfaction in helping different groups, such as the children in the classroom gardens project. “It’s a great feeling to see little children plant a radish and then months later dig it out, brush it off and eat it. These kids have never experienced anything like this.” Perry has worked with the classroom gardens program since 1994. With this project, Master Gardeners train classroom Jerrold Summerlin
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Master Gardener Lee Perry (foreground) leads the landscaping of the 1820s Mill Springs cabin at the Bradley Middle School in San Antonio with the help of (from left) Kevin Owen, Lauryn Bailey, Mike Bailey and Steven Medina. Above: Lee Perry and Kevin Owen prepare a bed for planting.
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teachers to establish gardens and a related curriculum for their classes. The program is active in 240 Bexar County schools. Perry works with Bradley Middle School special education students, whose project for the next school year is a salsa garden with tomatoes, chilies and herbs. But Perry doesn’t draw the line at one job. She has also served as a mentor to Master Gardener classes for the past five years, helping the new graduates find opportunities for volunteer hours. Master Gardeners are required to earn six Continuing Education Units (CEUs) yearly to continue in the organization, and Perry helps initiate their contact with people and organizations. “This leads to great new experiences,” says Perry. “Just recently we’ve become involved with water gardens and the horticulture program at the Alamo. And we’re always learning about different and useful topics, such as herbicides.” “It’s great to see the new classes and their enthusiasm,” says Perry. “You see them grow in their special interests, and you see them all come together to work on projects. The last class took an interest in working with aging citizens. They’ve worked at several assisted living facilities, and they report that it’s great to see these 80- and 90year-olds go to work on potting small plants.” And if the mentoring work, the CEU program and the classroom gardens aren’t enough, Perry is also active in plant propagation at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. Under the funding umbrella of the San Antonio Botanical Society, an active propagation program was started with the help of the Master Gardeners. The group grows native and unusual plants from seed and conducts plant sales three or four times a year. And yet, that’s not the extent of her volunteer work. Perry is past president of the local Navy Officer Wives Club, an organization she has helped for the past 30 years. To this day, Perry volunteers at Brooks Army Medical Center as a chaperone, helping nurses and doctors one day a week for four to eight hours. “My mother was a Red Cross volunteer at military hospitals,” she said, “and she was a big influence in teaching me the importance of giving back.”
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Big Farm Bill Sign-Up Extension, Farm Service Agency partner to reach producers by Tim McAlavy
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t wasn’t exactly a “marriage made in heaven.” It was, in fact, a partnership born of necessity. But the winners were the farmers and ranchers of Texas and across the country. Flash back to January 2002. Jerry Harris, chair of the Texas State Farm Service Agency Committee, is wondering how his agency is going to educate producers about a new farm bill and implement farm bill sign-up. The agency is short-handed, and the legislation is more complex than its predecessors. In fact, this was the first time in 20 years that all producers wanting to participate in the farm program were required to recertify key information about their farming operations. “I knew this was a huge mountain to climb,” says Harris, who farms more than 3,000 acres of cotton, grain sorghum and peanuts in Gaines and Dawson counties. “We were short on resources and personnel, and each county FSA office was facing 150 percent of the workload it had known in the past two or three years. “We were in our regular monthly committee meeting. As I looked around the room, I saw Ed Smith, and a little light went on in my head. “I knew then that we should ask Texas Cooperative Extension to get involved. I knew Extension had the resources and talent to help us mount and carry out a massive education
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effort because I have worked with Extension from 4-H all the way up through my farming career.” Harris asked Smith if it were possible. Could Extension help FSA reach Texas farmers for a smooth farm bill enrollment? Smith, Extension associate director for agricultural and natural resources, took the request to Washington, D.C.—where economists with Texas A&M’s Agriculture Food and Policy Center (AFPC) were watching the day-to-day development of the new farm bill. “FSA was facing an enormous task with limited resources,” Smith says. “And, as it turned out, Joe Outlaw and James Richardson, two of our AFPC economists, were working on a calculator to aid producers with their farm program decisions. “So we had the calculator and a host of specialists and Extension agents to teach others how to use it. The obvious answer was, ‘Yes, we can help with this education campaign.’ After that, it all happened very fast.” Outlaw and Richardson demonstrated their base acreage and yield benefit calculator to FSA officials in Washington. It was quickly adopted as the nationwide “tool of choice” for producers to use to analyze the effects of the new farm program on their operations. “By the time President Bush signed the farm bill in May
Tim McAlavy
2002, we had the calculator available for public use on two “Sue made good use of the calculator to run our numbers. Internet sites (http://www.afpc.tamu.edu/models/bya/ and We worked out the ‘best case’ scenarios for the land we farm http://www.fsa.usda.gov/pas/farmbill/tools.asp),” recalls before we went into the FSA office to enroll. Outlaw, an Extension management economist, “and we had “Without the calculator, we would have really been in the scheduled many, many farm bill education meetings.” dark. As a financial planning tool, it is a godsend. We were FSA personnel, Extension economists and Extension agents signed up and planting cotton shortly after President Bush statewide took it from there. They hosted farm bill education signed the farm bill.” meetings everywhere they could get producers to gather—at The Weavers credit Extension agents Bryan Reynolds and county FSA and Extension offices, cotton gins and local comGreg Jones and FSA county directors Victor Ashley and Jimmy munity colleges. Woodard with reaching many producers who do not yet use The idea, according to veteran Dawson County Extension computers in their operations. agent John Farris, was to “train the trainer” and let those many “Our Lynn County agent (Reynolds) was able to make severtrainers work together to reach producers. al computers at the senior citizens center available for people “If you add in all the county meetings hosted by agents and to run their numbers,” Bill Weaver says. “You could tell that FSA folks, the total would go way over 200,” Outlaw says. was a great relief for many producers.” “Their meetings were so successful that, at one point, James “The current farm bill is so much better than what we have [Richardson] and I were getting telephone calls and e-mails had. Tools like the base and yield calculator help us look to from people all around the world. The Web usage of the calcuthe future of our operations . . . where we will be in three or lator was so high in December and January that we experifive years. I cannot express how wonderful it would be to enced outages. The servers [host computers] were inundated.” keep the Extension/FSA partnership in place for future farm Jackie Smith, Extension management economist based in programs.” Lubbock, held one of the first farm bill primer meetings in Harris and Smith think the same way. May 2002. “I don’t have the words to express our gratitude for “Producers hadn’t had a Extension’s help in this effort,” chance to update their base Harris says. “The cooperation acres and yields since the we attained is a model for the 1980s, and these are factors future. It helped us provide a in how farm program benefits better product for producers, and payments are calculated,” as efficiently as possible. Smith explains. “The other big American taxpayers deserve change in the farm bill was that level of efficiency.” adding a counter-cyclical pay“What started out as an ment, which provides some impromptu partnership has income when market prices proven to be a super success are low, but may disappear story for Extension and FSA,” when market prices rebound. Smith says. “Producers used the calculaNumbers tell a similar story. tor to run several ‘what if’ sceBy June, less than one year narios. They knew the countafter the farm bill was enacted, er-cyclical payment (a floor FSA noted that 99.5 percent of price paid for a commodity) eligible farmers in Texas, and would come and go with ups the United States, had enrolled and downs in market prices. in the new program. A breakThose scenarios showed them Sue and Bill Weaver used the computerized base and yield calculator developed by down of state-by-state farm Extension to help them know how to sign up for the farm bill. real alternatives in picking the program sign-up is available on best base and yield combinathe Internet at tion. It also gave them an idea how important it is to hedge http://www.fsa.usda.gov/pas/farmbill/enrollpublic.asp. the counter-cyclical payment in some way.” By June, the online base and yield calculator had logged 430,475 total “runs” (calculation reports) nationwide, repreBill and Sue Weaver have farmed a mixture of dryland and senting more than 140 million acres of farmland, Outlaw says. irrigated cotton for more than 40 years in Garza and Lynn counties on the Texas South Plains. For their efforts in helping coordinate this massive education “Long enough to raise three good kids,” they say. campaign, John Fuston, state executive director of the Texas They attended several farm bill educational meetings and State Farm Service Agency, received FSA’s State Executive learned how to use the new calculator. Director of the Year Award for 2002. Outlaw and Richardson “After we saw the software and how to run it, we came were honored by FSA as recipients of the Administrator’s home reassured,” Bill Weaver says. “It costs a whole lot of Award for Service to Agriculture. money to farm nowadays. You need every edge you can get, and you can’t afford to make mistakes . . . because a mistake can cost you a lot in this business.
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Extension Goes to Jail Teaching prisoners life skills via TV link
Jim Lyle, Jerrold Summerlin
by Linda Anderson
Jo Lynn Jennings, Harris County Extension agent, (inset) teaches a nutrition class via TV hookup for Bonnie Brakebill, on-site facilitator, and student inmates at Plane State Jail.
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t sits on a treeless plain in the middle of Liberty County in East Texas. The landscape is flat and forbidding. The austere buildings of the complex are surrounded by concrete and high wire fencing. Plane State Jail, near Dayton, looks exactly like what it is. But within these bleak surroundings are pockets of hope and growth, thanks, in part, to a program from Texas Cooperative Extension. For the past two years, Extension agents have been teaching health, and parenting and financial skills to as many as 75 women prisoners per school semester. Yet the expert speakers have rarely set foot in the jail. Instead, the teaching is presented via television through a live video hookup that originates 50 miles away at the Extension office in Harris County. The effort is the first distance education program Extension has offered in a Texas detention facility, says Jamie McWright, an Extension agent for community relations in Harris County and the program’s coordinator.
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Texas A&M Lifescapes
Fall 2003
Dr. Jose Amador, director of The Texas A&M University System Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Weslaco, was presented with the Caballero de Oro, or Golden Knight Award, at the 2003 Pan American Plant Disease Conference in honor of his many contributions to phytopathology. Dr. Bonnie Beaver, Texas A&M professor of veterinary small animal medicine and surgery, has been unanimously elected as president-elect of the American Veterinary Medical Association for 2003-04. She is the second woman in the history of the 69,000-member organization to fill that post. Dr. Calvin Parnell, director of the A&M System Center for Agricultural Air Quality Engineering and Science, and Dr. John Sweeten, resident director of The Texas A&M System Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Amarillo, recently were reappointed by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman to two-year terms on the National Agricultural Air Quality Task Force. Veneman also tapped Dr. C. Parr Rosson III, Texas A&M professor of agricultural economics and Extension economist, for a two-year term on the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee for Trade in grains, feed and oilseeds.
Trailblazers
Using videoconferencing equipment, she says, has made it easy to offer classes by a variety of experts, while cutting down on commuting in Houston traffic and avoiding any security issues at the jail. Classes meet for two hours, two days a week, for five weeks. The fifth semester is scheduled to start this fall. The program is a hit with both the prisoners and the jail’s supervisors. “It’s about making changes,” says Cathy, an inmate enrolled in the spring semester class. “It’s about behavior and relationships and violence and abuse and neglect. Since I’ve been here, I’ve been aware of the need to change . . . to change for me and for my kids and for society.” These classes, she says, as well as others offered at the jail, are teaching her how to make positive changes in her life—giving her the chance to start over. “If I can’t take care of myself, I can’t take care of anybody else,” Cathy adds. Inmate Jurlee agrees, adding that what she is learning in these classes while she’s serving her time will help her better manage her life once she’s released. And that’s her goal. Tammy, another participant, says she’s working on a more positive outlook on life, and the classes help her get there. Students hear current information that builds and reinforces their life skills, says Bonnie Brakebill, a jail staffer who helped coordinate the educational programs until her recent retirement. These skills include establishing credit and checking on personal credit reports, reading and understanding nutrition labels, and learning the importance of self-esteem and self-control. And many of the students realize how important these lessons are, she adds. “They take notes and say they are going to take them home and use them; some say ‘I’ve never thought of this!’“ The Harris County Inmate Distance Education Program is a cooperative effort between Extension, Houston Rotary, Verizon and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The program was organized by an Extension volunteer, Scott Swanson. He chairs Harris County’s Extension Program Council and is also a member of Houston Rotary’s Fresh-Start Committee, a group that mentors prison inmates. “By serving on both committees, he saw a way Extension could provide inmates with education to serve their needs,” McWright says. But even inspired ideas take time to implement. Almost two years of communicating, coordinating, approving and purchasing were required before the first class was offered. Swanson and Susan Russell, Extension director for Harris County, worked to create a solid partnership between Extension and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in order to create the innovative program, McWright says, adding, “Plane State Jail was chosen because about half of the inmates return to Harris County when they are released, which made teaching life skills very much a community issue.” More than 2,000 women are incarcerated at the jail, and most are serving time for such charges as hot-check writing and substance abuse. “A lot of these women return to their families as head of the household,” she says. “They need these skills.”
Dr. Robert Brown, professor and head of Texas A&M’s department of wildlife and fisheries sciences, has been elected vice president of The Wildlife Society. After serving a year as vice president of the 9,000-member international scientific society, Brown will become president-elect in 2004, then president in 2005. Texas Forest Service staff forester Jan Davis recently became the first Texas woman to be named a National Convention Program Chair for the Society of American Foresters. As program chair, she will help develop the theme and format for the 2005 national convention, to be held in Fort Worth, marking the first time the event has been hosted in the Lone Star State. Dr. Jeff Savell, professor and E. M. “Manny” Rosenthal chairholder in Texas A&M’s department of animal science, received the Harry L. Rudnick Educator’s Award from the North American Meat Processors Association this past spring in recognition of his outstanding contributions in food science education. Texas A&M agricultural education professor Dr. James Christiansen received the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education’s 2003 Outstanding Leadership Award, which is presented annually to the member who has made substantial leadership contributions to international agricultural and extension education on a continuous basis. Three Agriculture Program employees received 2003 Distinguished Achievement Awards from the Texas A&M Association of Former Students in May. Dr. Martyn Gunn, professor of biochemistry and biophysics, and Dr. David Zuberer, professor of soil and crop sciences, were recognized for their contributions to teaching, while Dr. Chester Fehlis, director of Texas Cooperative Extension, was cited for his work in continuing education/extension.
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Frontiers of Discovery
Food and Fiber System Nets $72.8 Billion for State Economy The food and fiber system in Texas contributed as much as $72.8 billion to the state economy from 1997 through 2000 despite periods of drought and low prices, according to a joint study by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station and Texas Cooperative Extension. During the 4-year period, the food and fiber system accounted for 10 percent of the state’s total economy, “a sizable fraction when you consider the size and diversity of the Texas economy,” said Dr. Ed Smith, Extension associate director for agriculture and natural resources and one of the members of the study team. The study, presented in late spring to the state Agriculture Policy Board, measured economic impact by looking at the Gross State Product, which represents the value added in production through the use of land, labor, capital and management resources. The complete report may be viewed online by clicking on http://tcebookstore.org/ pubinfo.cfm?pubid=1771.
Analyze This: TAES Research May Help Save Giant Panda It’s a first for the Experiment Station’s Grazingland Animal Nutrition Lab, and oddly enough, the work doesn’t have anything to do with livestock. But what researchers learn from studying the nutrition of a giant panda—a species whose worldwide numbers are estimated at fewer than 1,000—could be crucial to preventing the animal’s extinction. Doug Tolleson is director of the lab, one of three academic partners in the effort to preserve and restore giant panda habitats in China. He is working with the Memphis Zoo, current home to giant pandas Le Le and Ya Ya, to learn about the nutritional ecology and foraging strategy of the species. Fecal samples collected at the zoo will be mailed to the lab, where researchers will analyze them using near infrared reflectance spec-
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troscopy, which measures chemical bonds in a variety of organic compounds. Researchers hope the analysis will lead to more accurate and immediate information about the giant panda’s diet.
Healing Help: Improving Wound Care with Collagen A collagen-based wound sealant recently developed at Texas A&M could be an alternative for human and animal wound care treatment. The material—which can be poured or injected into the wound— speeds the closure of wounds, according to Dr. Douglas Miller, one of several Experiment Station research scientists working on the project. In testing involving laboratory rats, Miller and his colleagues found a significant difference in closure between treated and untreated wounds. The treated wounds healed in half the time. Miller predicts the product will have widespread appeal throughout dental, medical and veterinary and human medical practices. In addition to treating diabetic ulcers, the material might also be used as a slow-release depot for vaccines or drugs, in bone repair, or as part of graft or prosthetic implant stabilization.
Rest Stop Kiosks to Aid Texas Travelers, Tourism Stop at a highway rest area in certain areas of Texas, and you can now discover some of the state’s best-kept secrets—all courtesy of a stand-alone computer kiosk. Whether you’re looking for a nearby restaurant that cooks a good, juicy steak or the tops in treasure found at local antique shops, that information could be as close as your fingertips, thanks to a new pilot kiosk program, TexBox, sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation and Texas A&M University. In April, touch-screen computer kiosks were unveiled at three TxDOT safety rest areas in Hardeman, Gray and Donley counties. In addition to dispensing maps and other helpful information to travelers, the kiosks will help business owners and tourism planners by providing a real-time statistical analysis of the data over the Web in table and graphic formats.
In related news, to help smaller tourism and recreation-related businesses better promote their services, Texas A&M recreation, park and tourism sciences specialists have developed Texas INFRONT (Texas Information Network of Farm, Ranch, Outdoor-Recreation and Nature Tourism), an online database of nature-based tourism and recreation businesses across the state. The database, available at http://survey.tamu.edu/ texasinfront, enables users to search for a business by keyword or type of service offered, as well as by specific travel region or country.
Voracious Beetle Taking Bite Out of Saltcedar Agriculture Program researchers have a new weapon in their war against saltcedar, an invasive, water-gulping tree that is diminishing rivers and streams throughout Texas. While herbicides usually have been used to combat the tree’s expansion, leaf beetles from Central Asia and the Mediterranean, the tree’s native regions, have proven successful in caged field tests at defoliating the trees. Defoliation by the beetles is expected to greatly reduce water consumption by saltcedar. The first wave of caged beetles, which eat only saltcedar and pose no threat to other vegetation, was released in midJuly near Big Spring and Seymour, says Dr. Jack DeLoach, a USDA-ARS researcher in Temple, who is studying the insects with Extension entomologist Dr. Allen Knutson of Dallas. Future sites approved for release, possibly as early as this fall, include Candelaria near Big Bend, Zapata in South Texas and Kingsville.
Texas A&M Lifescapes
Photos: Jan Amen
Space Shuttle Down
Texas Forest Service leads largest recovery effort by Diane Bowen
hen thousands of searchers poured into East Texas and western Louisiana last winter to help recover debris from the Space Shuttle Columbia, they encountered obstacles aplenty. On the ground they faced wild hogs, heavy brush, menacing snakes, poison ivy, biting insects, bitter winds, bone-chilling sleet, brambly thickets and boot-grabbing mud bogs. Searchers by air contended with shifting winds and mechanical failures. Divers encountered murky waters, old submerged farm buildings and underwater forests with trees sometimes reaching 80 feet tall. But none of those hazards could compare to their biggest foe—time. Recovery crews worked 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week. They were in a race against the calendar to find as much of the shuttle debris as possible by May 1, before spring “green-up,” when plant growth would hamper visibility, and before warm weather brought the fire season, which would deplete their ranks of firefighters and foresters. The shuttle disintegrated in the skies above Texas at about 8 a.m. on Feb. 1, killing all seven members of its astronaut crew. To help solve the mystery of what caused the accident, thousands of people were needed to find, tag and document hundreds of thousands of pieces of shuttle debris. “The key to figuring out what happened to Columbia was recovering as much hardware as possible,” says Jerry L. Ross, astronaut and NASA’s point man for the recovery effort.
W Top left: One of 45 aircraft brought in to conduct air searches in conjunction with ground searches. Top right: During the first 7-10 days of the incident, volunteers from various agencies conducted the ground searches, here on private land. Center: Two searchers from New Mexico arriving at the base camp. Bottom: Ray Wright, forest technician from Center, conducts ground search in dense, wooded area.
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Photos: Jan Amen
The immediate goal was to ensure that people in the area were safe from hazardous materials carried by the shuttle, including fuel tanks of highly toxic substances and pyrotechnic devices that had not been detonated. The next priorities were to recover the crew and retrieve shuttle pieces scattered over a 7,500-mile area, much of it forested. Answering the call for help were more than 15,000 people from 42 states and Puerto Rico. The shuttle recovery project became the most extensive search effort ever documented. But 15,000 people couldn’t just descend upon the area and start tramping through the woods looking for stuff. The area had to be mapped, and searches had to be coordinated to prevent double coverage or oversights. Transportation, supplies and housing had to be acquired, workers briefed, landowner permissions obtained and recovered materials documented—all organized and executed immediately. To plan and manage this massive undertaking, NASA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Gov. Rick Perry turned to a Texas agency with years of experience in executing emergency response operations, the Texas Forest Service. The agency was tapped to organize all ground and air missions for the recovery operation after the Environmental Protection Agency had cleared public areas of potentially hazardous materials. The U.S. Navy oversaw the underwater search. Although a small agency of only 354 employees, TFS had to shoulder big responsibilities in this mission. Mark Stanford, TFS chief of fire operations, says the ground and air searches entailed: • Setting up a GIS (geographic information system) laboratory to map the 2.3 million acres identified as being in the shuttle debris path. The lab proTop: EPA personnel wear protective suits in preparation for collecting potentially hazardous shuttle material. Center: Kelly Scott, staff forester from Lufkin, seated at the plans desk in the mobile incident command center (bottom photo) in Lufkin.
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duced about 30,000 maps to help in the search effort and to track where shuttle pieces were found. • Orienting the hundreds of people flying into the area each week, assigning them to teams and giving them directions for their mission. Paul Hannemann, TFS chief regional fire coordinator, supervised the field operations. Cynthia Foster, TFS coordination center manager, and her staff mobilized as many as 1,000 people in a single day. • Dividing the search area into 2-square-mile grids and keeping track of which areas had been searched. The area covered by foot was about the size of Rhode Island. • Establishing a 24-hour hotline for citizens to use in reporting debris sightings. The phone bank took more than 25,000 calls in 100 days. Some of the more amusing calls came after 1 a.m., Stanford says, after the bars closed. At that time, he says, hotline personnel would begin receiving a number of interesting theories on what caused the disaster. • Creating a database to record recovered shuttle parts. • Setting up search base camps in Corsicana, Hemphill, Nacogdoches and Palestine. • Establishing debris collection centers in five counties. • Coordinating the air search over 1.6 million acres. TFS Aviation Manager Charles Walker managed 10 fixed-wing aircraft and 36 helicopters, which logged more than 5,000 flight hours. A huge task was getting the 3,000 workers based in four cities sent to the right sites with the equipment they needed each day. Ground searchers were divided into 20-person teams and sent down mostly rural roads to sometimes extremely remote areas. About 150 crews were in the field at any time, covering about 10,550 acres a day. Feeding, housing and clothing them was another logistical challenge. Four encampments had to be set up and maintained, each complete with beds, showers, food service and laundry, medical and sanitation facilities to accommodate 1,000 to 2,000 people at a time. Searchers slept in pup tents, sometimes in 20-degree temperatures. Hundreds of them packed into camps in such places as the Longview Fairgrounds and an abandoned racetrack in Nacogdoches. Besides the cots, tents and sleeping bags, organizers had to procure an extra set of boots for each searcher because of the muddy conditions. To oversee the ground search, TFS called on National Incident Management Teams. These 50-person teams manage the suppression efforts on large wildfires each year. A team was assigned to each of the four base camps. The Texas Forest Service was uniquely qualified to lead such an effort, Stanford said. Created in 1915 to manage the state’s forests—including fighting forest fires—it has in recent years been trained to manage many other emergencies such as floods and tornadoes. The department also responds to incidents such as the recent Exotic Newcastle Disease outbreak in the poultry industry in El Paso. Underscoring the dangers faced by emergency workers were the deaths of TFS aviation specialist Charles G. Krenek of Lufkin and pilot J. “Buzz” Mier of Rayne, Arizona. They were killed and three others were injured March 27. Their helicopter experienced mechanical failure and crashed while searching for shuttle materials over the Angelina National Forest.
Texas A&M Lifescapes
Photos: Jan Amen
More than 280 TFS employees directly aided the search effort. The rest of the agency’s staffers remained in their districts to keep the home fires from burning. Also involved in the recovery were 450 local, state and federal agencies, which could have been a bureaucratic nightmare. “I must say that when I got to Lufkin,” astronaut Ross says, “I thought, ‘Oh, man, this is going to be a real rats’ nest of bureaucratic turf battles and infighting.’” But he found the organization and cooperation there to be “incredible.” By the time the search was completed on April 27 (four days early), their mission had been accomplished. Remains from all crew members were found within 12 days of the accident, primarily in Sabine County. The searchers recovered far more shuttle material than expected. The National Transportation Safety Board had predicted that only 15 to 20 percent of the shuttle would be found. However, 84,700 pounds—38 percent of the total reentry weight—were recovered, including many vital components such as the data recorder, which was found near Hemphill, fully intact and right side up. Those finds helped the Columbia Accident Investigation Board determine a probable cause of the accident. The breakup likely was triggered by foam debris that broke off during liftoff and hit the left wing, weakening it enough that it failed structurally during reentry. But the search’s success came at a high cost. In addition to the two lives lost, the total tab for taxpayers ran to $250 mil-
lion, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. NASA is grateful for the contributions of many individuals to the space program’s future, Ross says. “I can’t overemphasize the spirit and the great attitude that all the hand crews brought to this endeavor,” he says. “It’s just a great bunch of Americans.” As for the Texas Forest Service’s role, Ross says they were critical in getting NASA flying again. “They were our key players,” he says. “We could not have done it without them.”
Aggie Agribusiness Education Extends to Armenia
The Agriculture Program will team up with the city of Houston to host the second International Conference on Agricultural and Science Technology (ICAST), scheduled for Oct. 12–15 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston. The goal of the conference is to formulate constructive, science-based solutions that address critical global issues affecting water, food, agricultural trade, energy, bioterrorism and public health. The event, expected to draw world agricultural leaders from China, South America and Africa, also will help set the agenda for the next conference, planned for 2005. In addition to an exhibit and poster session, ICAST will feature presentations in major interest areas, including policy issues in agricultural science and technology, social equality and poverty eradication, resources and the environment, and food and feed safety. For additional conference information and a complete schedule of events, visit http://www.2003ICAST.org.
Last spring, 30 students from the Armenian Agricultural Academy (AAA) left campus with more than just hardearned diplomas. Thanks to an opportunity made possible by the university’s educational expertise and USDA funding, each also earned a highly prized certificate from the Texas A&M Agribusiness Program. Under the two-year program, led by agricultural economics professor Dr. John Nichols and Daniel Dunn, project coordinator in Armenia, participants enroll in an upper-level agribusiness management curriculum at AAA nearly identical to that required for junior and senior majors at Texas A&M. In addition to classes in accounting, statistics, marketing, management and finance, students take mandatory AAA courses for graduation. Each year, 30 students from more than 100 applicants are accepted into the program, in operation for four years. Candidates must successfully complete a preparatory summer regimen consisting
Fall 2003
of an introductory agricultural economics course as well as supplemental training in English and general computer applications.
Texas A&M Vet Students Assist Animals in Ghana A team of second-year veterinary students from Texas A&M’s College of Veterinary Medicine journeyed to West Africa this summer to launch the Ghana Animal Welfare Society (GHAWS) in Accra, the nation’s capital. For six weeks, four students helped local veterinarians set up guidelines and standards to ensure proper animal care. They helped Ghanaians develop a compassionate attitude toward animals and to understand important human health issues related to zoonotic diseases—ailments passed from animal to humans. GHAWS began last January after third-year veterinarian student Angela Williams, principal investigator for the project, spent three months in Ghana last summer working with head veterinarian, Dr. Joseph Selorm Tettey, to gain international experience and veterinary knowledge.
Spanning the Globe
2003 ICAST to Address Critical World Issues in Ag
Top: Heavy winter rains meant wet, muddy boots for more than 800 search personnel in the Nacogdoches base camp. Support personnel ordered extra boots for everyone and designed special boot dryers. Bottom: TFS staff discussing DFO (disaster field office) relocation to Bank of America office building in Lufkin. From left, Bobby Young, TFS associate director of fire resource protection; Ronnie Jones, reforestation technician from San Augustine; Jerry Denson, forest technician from Crockett.
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A Nature to Nurture
Texas teacher continues to impact education even in retirement by Shana Hutchins
Above: After retiring in 1991 from a 34-year teaching career, Mary Barnhill devoted her time to ranch improvements and her prized herd of Santa Gertrudis cattle. Right: One of Barnhill’s Santa Gertrudis cows.
ooner or later, if we’re lucky, most of us find our purpose in life—that chief pursuit that helps to define who we are. In Mary Barnhill’s case, it was definitely sooner. “I started teaching at the age of two,” she recalls. “My older sisters taught me what they had learned in school each afternoon, and I would teach my dolls all day the next day. I even taught my neighbor, and, when we started the first grade, I nearly drove the teacher crazy because I knew all the material she was teaching. “I think I was born with the need to teach. I simply loved teaching all my life.” Ask Barnhill, Texas A&M University Class of 1976, about her proudest accomplishments, and she is quick to cite her 34-year career as a public school educator. Running a close second, however, is Barnhill Farm, her 291-acre ranch located just outside of Waco in a spring-fed meadow that, for her, rivals paradise. But Barnhill’s paradise didn’t come without its price—a lot of planning and hard work, particularly in the last decade, by her and her brother-in-law, John Barnhill, who owns the adjacent 4-L Ranch. Although the property has been in Barnhill’s possession since the 1960s, her busy teaching career previously left little time to devote to improvements. But after retiring in 1991, Barnhill set about making the place a home for herself and her prized herd of polled Santa Gertrudis cattle, “children” almost as dear to her as the many she shepherded through Texas public schools.
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She also found a way to combine her two lifelong passions, education and ranching, to create a unique legacy for students at Texas A&M University. In January, she established the Mary Barnhill Endowed Scholarship, awarded on the basis of merit to students pursuing degrees in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences or College of Education and Human Development. To be eligible for consideration, students must be at least college sophomores and graduates of one of the six Texas high schools at which Barnhill taught: Ballinger, Gatesville, McGregor, Midway, Palacios and Robert Lee. “I wanted kids at those schools to receive scholarships to Texas A&M University,” Barnhill explains. “I have a special love for those students and those schools.”
Texas A&M Lifescapes
Barnhill’s combined gifts total approximately $500,000, the bulk of which will result from the sale of the ranch after her passing. All proceeds will be directed to the scholarship fund. “Mary Barnhill is a remarkable person who is passionate about educating young people,” says Tom Pool, interim director of development for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “As such an effective and influential teacher, she has no doubt transferred her values of education and hard work to thousands of students. “Mary’s gifts are great examples of ways people can support future generations of Aggies without depleting current cash or assets. Her scholarship fund is a fitting tribute to a career spent making a difference in the lives of young people.”
“I always made the students feel like they were very important to me,” Barnhill says. “If I loved and respected the students, they would always work hard to please me.”
“I always made the students feel like they were very important to me. If I loved and respected the students, they would always work hard to please me.”
For Barnhill, life is a story best told through anecdotes, warm tales that richly punctuate more than three decades spent educating Texas schoolchildren. Her story begins in 1957 in Ballinger. Fresh from earning a bachelor’s of business administration and teaching certificates from North Texas State, Barnhill took on her first teaching assignment, Typing 1, at Ballinger High School. Ironically, her 141 students weren’t her biggest challenge. “Each desk in the room had a trash can,” Barnhill recalls. “Well, the janitor spit tobacco juice in every can! I had to get on his good side to get that stopped. I told him one day that I would have my students empty their trash into a big can at the door and stack their cans so he could clean my room easier. But he had to stop spitting in my cans. He smiled and said that was a good deal. It worked!” In a subsequent job at Robert Lee High School, she coached a shy sophomore through tears to overcome her fear of delivering an oral book report in front of her English classmates. “I told her I knew she could do it, and I had the students give her a round of applause,” Barnhill recounts. “That evening, her mother called and said she was glad I made her finish the report.” Two years later as a senior, the girl once petrified before an audience won a state title in persuasive speaking. Barnhill helped another Robert Lee senior who was having trouble with a research report on anthrax. That same paper later earned him an A as a freshman at Texas Tech University. Then there was the troubled special needs student at Palacios High School. By placing him in a mainstream class, Barnhill achieved what others had considered an impossible goal. At the same time, she unknowingly helped place him on a path toward even broader success. “Some weeks later, his teacher told me to get to his classroom as soon as possible,” Barnhill explains. “When I arrived, there was that special student shucking oysters faster than any other student! Even though the youngster had lots of special needs, he had learned a skill that he could earn money doing.” Over the years, Barnhill insists she could always rely on one particular skill guaranteed to get the most out of her students.
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Mark Beal
Photos Mark Beal
Classroom Chronicles
Barnhill’s school spirit extends even to her livestock trailer, painted in Aggie maroon and customized with an official Texas A&M Agriculture bumper sticker.
Role Reversal In 1974, Barnhill accepted a new challenge along with her teaching duties—that of vocational counselor. To help her students into college, she decided to resume her own education at Texas A&M, where she earned both a master’s in agricultural education and a vocational counselor certificate in 1976. “I attended classes in the summers and at night,” she recalls. “My fondest memory is the outstanding support I got from my teachers. Dr. Don Herring was the chairman of my master’s committee and a great help to me.” At the time, Herring, now at the University of Arkansas, was an associate professor in Texas A&M’s department of agricultural education and coordinator of the department’s student teaching program. Herring recalls the teacher scored high marks when playing the role of student.
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Giving Matters
“Mary was very teachable—a highly dedicated student,” he says. “She was eager to learn all she could. She is the type of student who makes teaching such a rewarding profession because she appreciated so much the opportunity to be a graduate student at Texas A&M. “I haven’t seen Mary in years, but I suspect she still has the same enthusiasm and zest for life.” Pool says it’s that very approach that enables Barnhill to impart her ultimate life lesson—the importance of helping others succeed.
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“It is inspiring to see so many former students supporting education at Texas A&M University,” he says. “Through examples of generosity such as Mary’s, our future generations are learning the value of promoting education and helping others achieve their goals.”
Floriculture Chair Rooted in Industry Inspiration
can train students in greenhouse management online.
Five years ago, Ellen Ellison, coowner of Ellison’s Greenhouses Inc. in Brenham, saw a need to increase the number of horticulture graduates and trained greenhouse specialists to ensure the future of her profession, and she turned to Texas A&M University for help. That foresight led to $500,000 in pledges that will be matched by Texas A&M to create a $1 million Endowed Chair in Floriculture and Greenhouse Crops. The chair—whose supporters include the Texas State Florists Association—comes at a time when outstanding education and training programs are increasingly essential to support the needs of a growing horticulture or “green” industry. Horticulture recently surpassed cotton as Texas’ second largest agricultural industry and cultivates the nation’s No. 1 leisure pastime—landscape gardening. College administrators expect the first professor to be selected for the chair within two years, when all pledges are fulfilled. In addition to providing research, teaching and training programs, the college hopes to use chair funds to offer a virtual international school that
Avant Bequest to Fund Scholarships for Future Sharon and Bob Avant, Class of 1975, of Taylor have made a bequest that someday will establish a President’s Endowed Scholarship to be awarded to Aggies studying biological and agricultural engineering. Initiated in 1968, the President’s Endowed Scholarship program helps attract the brightest high school seniors to the university, annually offering them scholarships of $3,000 to $4,000 for four years, provided they maintain a 3.0 grade point ratio. While each scholarship currently requires a gift of at least $80,000, the Avants have agreed to give whatever amount is required to fund their award at the time their wills are administered. In addition, the Avants plan to bequeath $10,000 to fund smaller scholarships within the department of biological and agricultural engineering. Bob Avant, executive director of the Texas Food and Fibers Commission, earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biological and agricultural engineering from Texas A&M. Today, he serves on The Texas A&M
University System Agriculture Program’s One Spirit One Vision Campaign Leadership Committee and is a member of the College of Agriculture Development Council.
Honey Bee Laboratory Fund Lands Lead Gift Eastman Chemical Company–Texas Operations and the Eastman Foundation of Longview have pledged a $20,000 initial gift in a campaign to raise funds for a permanent facility dedicated to honey bee research and education at Texas A&M University. The gift marks the first in a drive to advance the department of entomology’s existing honey bee biology program, a partnership with the Texas Beekeepers Association. The proposed Honey Bee Laboratory, estimated to cost $550,000 to build and equip, will be housed at Texas A&M’s Riverside Campus and will support a range of research projects while also serving as a teaching laboratory for students as well as professional and amateur beekeepers. In addition, the facility will feature a full range of colony-handling and honey-processing activities.
Texas A&M Lifescapes
by Jennifer Paul and Elizabeth Gregory
Celebrating
Jim Lyle
kn a
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d rter emonst po n the morning hours of Feb. 25, 1903, local In the succeeding years, the Extension movement ra pp farmers and businessmen met at Odd grew to include demonstrations in the farm home 1 9 0 3 Fellows Hall in Terrell to hear a government to help isolated rural homemakers improve their agent give a presentation promoting better farmfamilies’ quality of life, and 4-H, which started ing methods. as a way of teaching rural young people agriculturerative Extension That day, in that small East Texas community, Dr. al and home-making skills. Coop County, Texas Kaufman Seaman A. Knapp, special agent of the U.S. Cooperative Extension doesn’t look the same 2 0 0 3 Department of Agriculture, planted the seeds for today as it did in 1903. the first farm demonstration and the birth of the “Our methodology of doing demonstrations has centennial Extension movement. Members of the community changed, and we have available to us a variety of servwere intrigued by Knapp’s ideas and ices unknown in Dr. Knapp’s time,” says invited him to conduct a hands-on Ralph Davis, Extension agent for agriculdemonstration to help them learn the ture in Kaufman County. new techniques. A committee of citizens “What hasn’t changed is the desire of raised the funds to cover any losses that Cooperative Extension to provide practimight be sustained by the farm designatcal education based on local needs—real ed as the demonstration site. learning for real life.” The chosen site was the farm of To commemorate a century of farm Walter C. Porter. demonstrations and the birth of the “For the demonstration, about 70 acres Extension movement, Kaufman County of the 800-acre farm was planted with is planning a big 100th birthday celebramostly cotton and corn, but also with tion Oct. 24–27. peas, sorghum, sweet potatoes and other “By highlighting the first farm demoncrops,” said Bill Porter, son of Walter C. stration, we can show the role Extension Porter, in an interview before he died in played in shaping and guiding agriculturJuly. “My daddy served as the farm al practices throughout the country and superintendent to carry out Dr. Knapp’s the world,” Davis says. “Undoubtedly, recommendations.” the work that Seaman Knapp did on The goal of the demonstration was to Porter Farms here in Terrell was importeach better crop cultivation methods, to tant, not only to the local citizens but to show the value of planting diverse crops the agricultural community everywhere.” instead of just one and to demonstrate Some of the events planned for that the importance of crop rotation—includweek will include a hay show, antique ing legumes—to leave the soil in better equipment display, old-time hay-cutting condition for future seasons. demonstration using horse-drawn equip“When my daddy finished with the Bill Porter and son John are direct descendants of Walter ment, western art by Texas artist Frank demonstration, he said, ‘I think I’ve C. Porter, whose farm in Kaufman County was the birth- Reaugh (Oct. 20-25), a tour of historical made $700 more farming this way than homes, and, of course, a tour of demonplace of the Extension movement in the early 1900s. I would have the old way,’“ Porter stration plots at Porter Farm. recalled. The following year his father announced that he Today, Porter Farm is still a working farm that has adapted would plant all 800 acres of the farm using the methods tested over the years to meet the changing needs of the agricultural in the demonstration. economy. After a century, the farm is still supporting the same In Knapp’s words, “What a man hears, he may doubt. What innovative, dedicated farming family. he sees, he may possibly doubt. But what he does himself, he For most people in Kaufman County, the anniversary and cannot doubt.” the history associated with this county and Porter Farm is Knapp’s “teaching by demonstration” idea was highly sucsomething to be proud of. cessful and sparked the farm demonstration movement nationBut when asked if he was proud of his place in farming hiswide. Not only did it revolutionize the transfer of new agricultory, the very humble Bill Porter said, “I’m not proud. I’m just tural methods from the researcher to the farm, but it also repvery thankful.” resented the beginning of 100 years of Cooperative Extension, the cooperation between government and university educators and people in each community to develop education to meet local needs.
Historical Marker
Birth of Extension
Fall 2003
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Texas A&M Women Win Rodeo Competition
Dr. Robert E. Whitson was named the interim deputy director of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station effective Aug. 15. He succeeds Dr. Charles Scifres, who died July 28. Whitson is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Experiment Station, the state’s major agricultural research arm and an agency of The Texas A&M University System. The Experiment Station supports the work of more than 450 scientists involved in research on the Texas A&M campus and two dozen sites around the state. Whitson served for the past 10 years as head of the department of rangeland ecology and management at Texas A&M.
In June, the Texas A&M Women’s Rodeo Team took the year-end crown in the Southern Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, which is composed of about 20 universities representing eastern Texas and Louisiana. Members of the Texas A&M team are Britanny Pozzi of Victoria, Amber Singleton of Combine, Johna Reeves of Bay City, Kourtney Shook of Rosenburg, Darcy Beyer of Victoria, Maggie Upton of San Angelo, Megan Shelton of Georgetown and Reagan Dillard of Pleasanton.
According to the May 2003 issue of Hispanic Outlook magazine, Texas A&M University ranked 16th nationally for the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded to Hispanics and first in bachelor’s degrees in agriculture awarded to Hispanics. Other disciplines in which Texas A&M was listed among the top 10 include mathematics (No. 1), engineering/engineering technology (No. 2), architecture (No. 3) and multi/interdisciplinary studies (No. 7). All rankings are based on 2000-01 data gathered by the National Center for Educational Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education.
Project HOPE Partnership Promotes Health Project HOPE, which stands for “Hypertension Outreach Prevention Education,” is a faith-based partnership between Prairie View Cooperative Extension and churches and other religious organizations in 13 Texas counties. By working with health ministries and offering classes in churches, the program is teaching Texans how to manage their blood pressure levels through nutrition, exercise and lifestyle changes.
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Crockett County 4-H Club Wins National Recognition
Texas Forest Service Crowns New Champion Live Oak The Texas Forest Service has recently confirmed the dimensions of the largest live oak in Texas. Located on the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge in Brazoria County, the new champion eclipses the famous “Big Tree” at Goose Island State Park near Rockport, which had been listed since 1966. The tree will be added to the Texas Big Tree Registry, which lists the largest specimen of every tree species found in Texas. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Michael Lange discovered the tree while surveying the newly acquired refuge property and nominated it for the state registry. The tree has a circumference of 386 inches, a height of 67 feet and a crown spread of 100 feet.
Pete Smith
A&M Agriculture Ranked First in Degrees Awarded to Hispanics
of multicultural services Student Organization Award during Texas A&M’s Diversity Awards ceremonies for implementing the STARS summer enrichment program for minority high school students and a mentoring program in the Rio Grande Valley.
MANNRS Captures University, National Honors The Texas A&M chapter of Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences recently was selected as the 2003 National Chapter of the Year. The Texas A&M group competed against other regional chapter winners from Cornell, University of Florida, Tuskegee, Ohio State and Oregon State. In April, MANNRS also received the department
The Crockett County 4-H Club’s community service “Angel Tree” project has won a national award in ColgatePalmolive’s Youth for America campaign, which recognizes the country’s best community projects by young Americans. The Ozona 4-H’ers’ project was chosen from more than 2,000 entries nationwide and won fourth place. The project provides Christmas gifts for underprivileged children. Fifty members of the Ozona Intermediate School 4-H’ers helped 35 families and 78 children. Their efforts sparked a community outpouring where more than 150 citizens pitched in to help and the Ozona High School Student Council sponsored a related drive that resulted in 800 cans of donated food.
4-H Centennial Horse Monument Dedicated in Amarillo As part of the national 4-H 100th anniversary celebrations, an equine monument has been dedicated at The Texas A&M University System Agricultural Research and Extension Center. Centennial joins a remuda of 55 other painted concrete horses that grace Amarillo landmarks. The monument stands nearly 15 hands high (approximately five feet) and commemorates recognizable symbols of 4-H history, projects and contests ranging from the earliest tomato club to today’s young ambassadors in Washington, D.C. 4-H club members and supporters from across the Panhandle funded the project from private donations and in-kind contributions.
Pam Dillard
Blair Fannin
State Gems
Interim Deputy Director of Experiment Station Appointed
Texas A&M Lifescapes
“We can see A&M’s future.” In their search to find a way to impact Texas A&M’s future, Bob and Sharon Avant had to look no further than their past—or, more precisely, Sharon’s. The Avants recently made a bequest that someday will establish multiple awards, including a prestigious President’s Endowed Scholarship, to benefit Aggies studying biological and agricultural engineering. The inspiration behind their gift dates back nearly three decades to the couple’s own days at Texas A&M. While Bob was working on bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural engineering, Sharon was working as an administrative assistant in then-Texas A&M President Jack Williams’ office, where she got the opportunity to observe the value of President’s Endowed Scholarships to students firsthand. “Aggies love the university, and they like to give back what they have been given,” Bob says. “I think it’s only appropriate to give back so young people can have those experiences themselves.” To help enhance the Aggie experience for future generations, the Avants encourage you to make your own impact by supporting A&M’s One Spirit One Vision Campaign. Bob ‘75 and Sharon Avant TAYLOR One Spirit One Vision Agriculture Program Campaign donors
What do you see in A&M’s future? For information on One Spirit One Vision giving opportunities in agriculture and life sciences, please contact the Agriculture Program Development Office at (979) 847-9314 or by e-mail at t-pool@tamu.edu.
Agriculture Program Development Office 2142 TAMU College Station, Texas 77843-2142 http://giving.tamu.edu
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USDA representative Dr. Seaman Knapp (seated, center) meets with farmer Walter Porter (right of Knapp) and other farmers and businessmen in Terrell, Texas, to discuss an idea for a farm demonstration that gave birth to the national Extension movement. Cooperative Extension celebrates its centennial at the Porter Farm in Kaufman County Oct. 24–27. See our story, page 31.
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