UW Honors Wyoming Agriculture with Special Events Oct. 7-8

Sept. 30, 2005 -- The University of Wyoming College of Agriculture’s outstanding alumni, research/outreach partner and legacy winner will be honored Oct. 7-8, during Ag Appreciation Weekend, a celebration of the importance of agriculture to Wyoming’s history, culture and economy.

Outstanding alumni are State Treasurer Cynthia Lummis from Cheyenne and Richard Taggart, chief financial officer for Weyerhaeuser Co., an Evanston native.

Glyda May of Wheatland is the Legacy Award winner. May and her late husband, Woody, provided support for the Cliff and Martha Hansen Livestock Teaching Arena at UW, agricultural youth leadership programs in Wyoming, and to help fund wildlife-livestock disease programs within the College of Agriculture.

The Wyoming Beef Cattle Improvement Association (WBCIA) is the year’s Outstanding Research/Outreach Partner for its work with the college. The association is cited for its work to improve beef products to fit consumer needs and to generate higher prices for producers.

Award winners will be honored at the Dean’s Ag Appreciation Dinner Friday. Reservations are requested before Oct. 3 by calling the College of Agriculture Development and College Relations Office at (307) 766-3372.

Lummis earned bachelor’s degrees in animal science and biology from UW and is a member of two UW boards -- the Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources and the College of Business Advisory Council. At age 24, Lummis campaigned hard to become the youngest woman in the Wyoming State Legislature. She later was elected state treasurer, beginning the first of her two elected terms in 1999. She became the first woman to serve on the Cheyenne Frontier Days board.

Taggart manages the budget of a Fortune 200 company that has annual sales of more than $22 billion. Taggart’s trail to becoming chief financial officer and an executive vice president of Weyerhaeuser Co. started in Evanston and at UW, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural economics in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He specialized in natural resource management.

His success in the business world and his work with UW's Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources are cited for his College of Agriculture honor.

May and her husband built their feedlot and ranch near Wheatland and her parents helped start the Platte County Farm Bureau. May has been involved in local activities, serving as a volunteer at the Platte County Fair for many years, and is also involved outside her community. She was a member of a review team from Platte, Laramie and Goshen counties that studied the UW Cooperative Extension Service (CES) research and extension centers in southeast Wyoming. Their eventual recommendation was to create the Sustainable Agriculture and Research Extension Center (SAREC) near Lingle.

UW CES personnel and a group of Wyoming beef producers in 1984 formed the WBCIA, when there was no beef cattle genetic improvement organization in Wyoming. The association established a feedlot test and carcass evaluation program and a bull and heifer test and sale, created an annual educational symposium and began a live beef evaluation in conjunction with the Wyoming State Fair Fed Beef Contest.

The CES has helped administer some of the testing programs and assisted producers in leading some of the educational programs.

A barbecue before the Texas Christian University-UW football game will help raise scholarship money for students. The event is 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at Tailgate Park north of War Memorial Stadium and west of the American Heritage Center.

One dollar from each ticket is earmarked for an Ag Day Barbecue Scholarship awarded annually to a deserving student. Last year’s recipient was Glenda McKim of Laramie, a sophomore majoring in family and consumer sciences. Remaining profits benefit College of Agriculture clubs and organizations.

Barbecue tickets can be purchased at the event or in advance through the Cowboy Joe Club at (307) 766-6242 or the College of Agriculture at (307) 766-4034.

Posted on Friday, September 30, 2005