“…the most significant impact will be felt by retirements of so many dedicated faculty and staff members, the heart and soul of our mission. Even as we fill these positions, we certainly cannot replace the over 500 years of experience that we will lose.”
—Dean Mike Weiss

The UI College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) is losing14 faculty members to retirement this year. Add 13 last year for a total12 percent loss, with 206 faculty remaining. It’s the result of an early retirement incentive, a partial solution to the UI’s economic woes. Recognizing complex ways each faculty member can affect society, beyond obvious impacts on students, Programs & People shares a look at legacies of this year’s retirees. The diversity may surprise you.

Systems approach to judging 4-H livestock
Gene Gibson and his brother Chad helped revamp 4-H livestock competitions nationally by developing a systems approach to youth livestock evaluation. Instead of giving blue ribbons to winning animals for arbitrary reasons, the Gibson system, now widely adopted, uses a scorecard on show day based on industry standards for producing a valued product. On cards, kids set goals at the beginning, and if they don’t achieve them, they can see why in black and white.

Youth after school; mentoring
Becky Dahl landed a $500,000 USDA grant to develop Bannock County after-school and mentoring programs. Three—After-School Adventures, Youth Mentoring, and Early Teen—attracted an additional $700,000 in user fees and contributions. Weekly themes guided activities. Education was the focus even in snack preparation. After the grant expired in 1996, After-School Adventures evolved into a successful non-profit program that still continues and has been adopted in other states.

Ag in the Classroom (AITC)
Helping K-12 students become more aware of the role of agriculture in the economy was Doug Pals, who directed writing of the first 500-page curriculum guide for AITC, a grassroots program coordinated by the USDA. In 1988 he guided development and implementation of the first AITC workshops that have now reached more than 2,700 Idaho teachers. Urban kids no longer have to wonder if their food comes just from grocery stores.

Steer-a-Year scholars Nearly 80 scholarships have resulted from Dan Hinman’s efforts leading Idaho’s Steer-a-Year program that parlayed money from donated industry steers into a $300,000 endowment. Idea for the program was initiated by cattle producer alumni.

Meeting elders’ needs
Idaho’s first care-giving workshop, “Information for Caregivers of the Elderly,” was directed in 1988 by Mary Lee Curtis who since then has taught over 4,429 participants in 185 classes and workshops on related topics. Audiences include both health care professionals and volunteers. In 1996 she developed a statewide training program, “Extension Resources: Helping You Meet the Needs of Idaho’s Seniors.”

Changes for Idaho Agriculture

World class potatoes
Gale Kleinkopf in 1990 planned and helped design and raise $650,000 for the Kimberly Potato Storage Research Facility, unique in the world as a field laboratory for product testing and problem solving. And he helped the Kimberly R&E Center grow to 180 acres with several building additions, now serving more than 20 UI and USDA/ARS scientists.

Bean boon & pest IDs
Magic Valley growers saved up to $7.5 million in spraying costs over 25 years thanks to the western bean cutworm light trap program Bob Stoltz conducted. The network alerted growers to the cutworms’ arrival and density, helping growers reduce treated acres from 45,000 annually to fewer than 8,000. Stoltz also inspired one of the UI’s most popular websites—insect identification keys for 85 Pacific Northwest crop pests.

How wheat grows
Wheat and barley growers can better understand when plants are most vulnerable to stress, thanks to Larry Robertson’s work photographing and describing growth stages by week. His website won awards and grower devotion.

More cows, fewer dairymen
“There’s probably not a group of dairymen more progressive in the country,” boasts Dean Falk, at the center of the growth of Idaho’s $1 billion dairy industry. When Falk began in 1974 in Twin Falls, the state’s 149,000 cows were equally distributed across southern Idaho among 3,000 dairymen. Last summer found 387,000 animals and 830 producers. Falk lauds Idaho’s dairy owners as “early adopters of new technologies, such as innovative breeding programs, automated milking systems, scientific feeding management, and computer/herd records.”

Wildlife-livestock diseases
Al Ward began studies in 1989 to determine whether pneumonia caused by Pasteurella in domestic livestock is the culprit in bighorn sheep die-offs. Ward’s studies launched a landslide of interest in disease interactions in the movement of wildlife by their managers. His collecton, the largest of Pasteurella bacteria in the world from wildlife, demonstrates great diversity. It will be used to learn more about host distributions, how some produce disease, and prevention strategies. (Also see International inluence of retiring faculty.)