Congratulations to our summer graduates! Many of them are now ready to enter the agricultural workforce and have accepted positions. Others are choosing to continue their education – searching for a role that fits their passion. We are thrilled to hear that there are so many opportunities for our graduates. We congratulate them all and wish them the best of luck. Classes begin on August 24th for the next semester and last-minute preparations are being made for another wonderful year!

Record heat and drought continue to impact much of Texas, leading to major water restrictions and loss of crop production, including hay and pasture. This has also negatively impacted some of our research, but also provided an opportunity to evaluate strategies to improve performance under drought.

We will begin reviewing faculty for promotion and tenure in August (Faculty P&T Meeting is August 17 at 1 pm). Thanks to Amir Ibrahim for taking over as P&T chair and thanks to Seth Murray for his guidance over the past several years. Sept 1, we celebrate the promotion of Muthu Bagavathiannan, Ph.D., Fugen Dou, Ph.D., Julie Howe, Ph.D. and Nithya Rajan, Ph.D. to Professor and Scott Nolte, Ph.D. to Associate Professor.

Summer is a busy time for our science, and a time for our faculty to display their accomplishments at field days. The Beef Cattle Short Course, National Association of Plant Breeders, Texas Turfgrass Association, Soils Critique, Small Grains Workers and Small grains Advisory, and World Congress of Soil Science all engaged our faculty. Thanks to our faculty who led the organization of many of these events and provided presentations this year. While much summer research is now behind us or wrapping up soon, plans for the fall are evolving rapidly. Many fall events, including The World Food Prize, Cotton Breeders Conference, Bennet Women’s Conference and Turfgrass Field Day, are planned for the near future.

This year we will undergo our seven-year review of the Department. We have already initiated the process but will be moving forward rapidly with a departmental retreat on August 15-16. This retreat will be followed by the first state -wide Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service Conference under our new Director, Dr. Rick Avery, on August 16th-18th.

A big congratulations to all our faculty for helping make this another momentous year for grant success. This always begins with ideas of how to make a difference for Texas and connects those ideas with potential funding sources. Many are anxiously awaiting decisions on their proposals.

The wheels have already begun turning for the upcoming school year. Officers from the TAMU Agronomy Society have prepared the corn field for this fall’s corn maze. Our weeds judging teams recently competed well in regional events, Whoop! 

David Baltensberger, Ph.D. 
Professor and Department Head

It’s worth repeating but Congratulations to Muthu Bagavathiannan, Ph.D. and Judy Young on receiving their awards during the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Director’s Awards!

Congratulations to Steven Hague, Ph.D., who was selected to be this year’s Crop Science Society of America’s Fellow. Hague will be presented the award during the 2022 CSSA annual meeting in Baltimore in November.

Bishwa Sapkota was named the winner of the 2022 Nelson Yield Limiting Factors Graduate Student Scholarship. He will be formally recognized during the ASA/CSSA/SSSA Annual meeting in November.

Bidemi Fashina received the Best Student Oral Presentation Award at the 2022 International Clay Conference that was held in Istanbul. Fashina is a Ph.D. doctoral student who is advised by Youjun Deng, Ph.D.

Congratulations to former student Ariana Lazo who was recognized as an Outstanding Senior in the spring of 2022 by the Crop Science, Soil Science and Agronomy Society of America. Lazo graduated in May 2022 with her bachelor of science in Plant and Environmental Soil Science with a soil and water emphasis.

Doctoral student Khushboo Rastogi received this year’s Mott Award. She is advised by Endang Septiningsih, Ph.D.

Congratulations to Harrison Coker as he received the Dow AGLS-Graduate Assistantship in Plant Protection. Coker is a master's student who is currently advised by Julie Howe, Ph.D., and Peyton Smith, Ph.D.

Monte Rouquette, Ph.D., Larry Redmon, Ph.D., Tony Provin, Ph.D., Gerald Smith, Ph.D., Vanessa Corriher-Olson, Ph.D., and Mark Matocha, Ph.D., spoke on different topics about forages and pasture management during the concurrent sessions. at the Beef Cattle Short Course.

Several members of our department also attended a special meeting at the Penberthy Rec Sports Complex Pavilion, where they presented information about conducting research on public sports fields. Ben Wherley, Ph.D., provided leadership at a similar meeting held in Minnesota.

Senior Plant and Environmental Soil Science major Gabrielle Scott presented about her experiences as an intern with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service water programs under the supervision of program specialist Michael Kuitu.