Build East Texas Presents Awards To Ag Leaders
Greg Junek
Build East Texas, a Cooperative Extension program, presented five awards to agricultural leaders during the Jan. 15 Texas Agriculture Lifetime Leadership Banquet at the Holiday Inn Select.
Kenneth W. Threlkeld of Threlkeld & Company Insurance received the BET Award of Excellence in Agricultural Research & Extension. The award expresses recognition and appreciation of his vision, leadership and contributions to East Texas through his support of the Texas Agricultural Lifetime Leadership program.
It followed a keynote address by state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville. BET reported about 175 business and governmental leaders attended the reception, including TALL program state advisory board members Ted Conover, Bank of Tyler president, and TALL Director, Jim Mazurkiewicz.
The BET Award of Excellence in Agricultural Research & Extension is presented annually as a means of recognizing outstanding accomplishments of either research or Extension personnel in the 37-county BET area. The recipient must have demonstrated excellence in personal performance in support of agriculture. He or she is selected by a committee of current members of the BET executive committee.
Threlkeld began his career in insurance in 1964. He established Threlkeld Company Insurance in 1982.
Albert Thompson of Nacogdoches County and Carlos Griffin of Gregg County received the Build East Texas Bill Clements Memorial Awards for Outstanding Leadership in Agriculture.
Thompson was cited as a leader in the ongoing effort to promote agriculture and beef production in East Texas. Griffin was recognized for his long-time support of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, formerly Texas Cooperative Extension, in programs including Ranch to Rail and the Texas A&M Beef Cattle Shortcourse.
Dr. Charles Long, resident director of research at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Overton, said Thompson has supported agriculture on the local, state and national levels.
Griffin manages a highly diversified agricultural operation that includes progressively managed beef, forestry and wildlife programs, Long said.
BET established the Clements Award in 1981 to recognize individuals who have made outstanding contributions to agriculture and agribusiness in the 37-county area.
And two faculty members stationed at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center also received awards.
Dr. Gerald Evers of Kilgore and Dr. Eric Taylor of Tyler were presented BET Awards of Excellence. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to agriculture by the personnel of Texas AgriLife Research and the Texas AgriLife Extension Service.
Dr. Evers, Texas AgriLife Research professor and regents fellow, was cited for his 37 years of work in forage research. Taylor was recognized for his innovative work in forest management and forestry education, Long said.
Dr. Evers has evaluated forages for East Texas, developed specific recommendations for overseeding pastures, worked with broiler litter as an alternative source of fertilizer and grown switchgrass as a bioenergy crop.
Dr. Taylor's efforts include work on refining pine seeding planting rates, the use of forest-generated biomass for bioenergy production, land fragmentation from urbanization and using pine straw for landscape mulch.
More information about Taylor's, Evers' and other AgriLife Research and Extension programs at Overton can be found on the center's Web site at http://overton.tamu.edu.
The purpose of the Build East Texas Program is to improve the agricultural income of East Texas citizens by encouraging the adoption of new technology and marketing systems. BET works with area agribusinesses, AgriLife Extension and AgriLife Research to develop local leadership, and better utilize and conserve East Texas natural resources.
The Jan. 15 banquet was conducted following the agriculture seminar for Class X of the TALL program.
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