2014-2015 Officer Team poses behind the Hatfield Marine Science Center sign during the Winter Officer Retreat.

The Agricultural Executive Council’s Officer Team kicked off Winter Term by taking a weekend to Hatfield Marine Science Center to have their Winter Officer Retreat. During this retreat, the officer team devoted the day to Constitution revisions, Winter Term planning, and officer bonding. While goals were made in the morning, the afternoon was spent ‘sea-horsing’ around in the science center, and the day finished off with adventures on the beach and downtown.

A few weeks later, we hosted our annual Ethics Panel, with panelists Dr. Rob Gaebel, Katie Fast, and Karen Samek. During this panel, our guests were prompted with questions about pressing issues in the Agricultural Industry. These panelists did an excellent job showcasing professional skills while answering ethical questions and interacting with opposing views. Council members reported that they thoroughly enjoyed having such experienced and well-presented speakers interacting inclusively with the council members.

Later in the term, the officer team hosted the annual College of Agricultural Sciences Country Western Dance. Hosted by the Country Western Dance Club and catered by the Meat Science Club, guests were asked to donate canned food as an entrance fee for this event. With all the canned food donated, the Agricultural Executive Council was able to donate around 500 cans of food to the OSU Food Bank. Oldfield Animal Teaching Facility was rockin’ with all of the dancing, while clubs within the council had the opportunity to enter a centerpiece into our centerpiece contest. 1^st place went to Food and Fermentation Science Club, 2^nd place went to Horticulture Club, and 3^rd place went to Agricultural Education Club.

Monthly council meetings this term went very smoothly as well. With guest speakers from Northwest Farm Credit Services, Experiential Learning Coordinator Dr. Katie Gaebel, and Leadership Academy Director Kellie Strawn, council members learned about upcoming College of Agricultural Sciences events and opportunities as well as scholarship information. Many clubs presented their club spotlights to share what clubs have been up to.

Currently, the council is gearing up for the Southwest Agriculture Industry Tour; otherwise know as the SWAG Tour. Running from April 24-26, students will be experiencing many different aspects of the Agricultural Industry, as well as speaking with industry leaders. Following not long after, Ag Days will kick off in the first week of May. Clubs will be able to showcase their activities and recruit members in the quad, students will be able to participate in a debate, and public speakers from Monsanto will be joining us for this event along with many other agenda items. Feel free to come check out Ag Days, and get your picture taken with a tractor or maybe even a baby cow!

A couple of officers blamed it all on their roots when they showed up in boots… at the beach!

An overhead view of the CAS Dance.

A front view of the line of dance at the CAS Dance!

A group shot of the Ethics Panel attendees.

A shot of the council during a monthly meeting.

This past Fall Term was quite a busy one for the Agricultural Executive Council. We kicked off the year with a long-weekend trip to Kah-Nee-Tah Resort for our officer retreat. While the guys in the group might have loved sleeping in a Tee-Pee for a weekend, the gals had other thoughts! We revised our Constitution, planned events for the year, came up with individual and team goals, as well as got to know each other and bonded as a team.

When we came back, we rolled right into the College of Agricultural Sciences Fall Kick-Off Gelato Social for incoming students. Here students learned about the many clubs our College has to offer, as well as enjoyed some creamy gelato from a local gelato shop. We truly learned that Oregon’s weather could be quite moody… Not an hour into the event and we got rained out! As a team we are excited for the new covered plaza to be built by Strand Agriculture Hall so that future years won’t get any rain on their parade!

Throughout the Football Season, the Ag Exec officers supported the College of Agricultural Sciences at the Celebrating Agriculture Game, our Alumni Tailgater, and the Potato Bowl. Beaver Pride is something that comes naturally to all of us, and celebrating tradition and agricultural top off the excitement of a home game. While hanging out and connecting with donors and alumni, the Ag Exec Officers are always willing to be part of the game day rush. GO BEAVS!

Members of the officer team were invited to the College of Agricultural Sciences Dean’s Dinner, held at the end of October. During the dinner, students were placed among tables to interact with faculty and alumni. We enjoyed hearing stories about anything from farming operations, to veterinary science studies, to landscape architecture. These kinds of stories and interactions are what make being a student of the College that much more interesting.

To wrap up the term for the Agricultural Executive Council, we hosted our annual Etiquette Dinner. We open the event to any student involved with an Ag Exec club. Our speakers for the evening were Jessica Budge of Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom, and Jake Cramer from S&T Fraternity Management. During the catered dinner, Jessica and Jake gave a presentation of how to professionally eat, mingle, and carry a conversation during a formal dinner or cocktail reception, or in our case a ‘mock-tail’ reception. The evening’s events wouldn’t have been possible without Jessica and Jake as well as a generous donation from Wilbur Ellis. The Agricultural Executive Council is looking forward to bringing more professional development events to the students of the College of Agricultural Sciences, as career preparation opportunities is one of the goals for the Ag Exec Officer Team this year.

Keep a look out for new College of Agricultural Sciences t-shirts, Spring Industry Tour, and Ag Days… Coming soon!

As the summer is coming to a warm beginning, our newly elected officer team has already begun to plan events and get things lined up for next year. Please welcome the 2014-2015 Agricultural Executive Council as follows:

President: Dustin Welters

Vice President: Gregory Taog Christensen

Director of Correspondence: Mandi Carlson

Director of Finance: Rand Campbell

Director of Public Relations: Joey Meyer

Director of Ag Day: Austin Miller

Director of New Fields: Bailey Jenks

We are all very excited to serve the College of Agricultural Sciences, and cannot wait to see what this next year has in store!

There are many amazing students, clubs, and staff in the College of Agricultural Sciences. At the Celebrating Student Excellence Dinner that was hosted by CAS we were able to recognize some of them. The Agricultural Executive Council was acknowledged for leadership accomplishments that they have done throughout the school year.

The students in the clubs from our college voted on the best professor that’s been here for a while and new professor, as staff got to choose which club did the best this year. The award for Distinguished Professor of the Year went to Dr. Selina Heppell, New Professor of the Year went to Dr. James Sterns, and Club of the Year went to Dairy Club. The awards given to professors were for professors that had a positive impact on many students. The club award was given to the club that was very active in doing their own events, going to Ag Exec Council and other club’s events. We are very thankful for all the remarkable staff and students that are within the college.

Name and title: 

Carl B. Schreck, Professor of Fisheries and Unit Leader

Where are you from? 

Born and raised in San Francisco

Where did you attend college?

University of California, Berkeley as an undergrad

Colorado State University for grad school

What is your favorite college memory?

            There are tons, but one sharing the top with a couple of others has to be my wife and I living out of a backpack for 72 days straight in the High Sierras of California as part of my Master’s research.

What do you like most about OSU?

 No question!  The friendly people in general and the family atmosphere in my department.

What is your favorite agricultural commodity?

Chocolate and wine.  Sorry, can’t pick one over the other.

What is something that you enjoy doing in your free time? 

Fly fishing

Do you have any advice for students in the College of Agricultural Sciences?

            Don’t miss out on taking advantage of all of the neat courses and other experiences available at OSU that will enrich your life beyond landing a job after graduation.  Worded another way, it is more important in the long run to come out of here with a good general education that allows you to think and make sound decisions than a profession.

A lot of consumers do not know where their food comes from or the process it has gone through from Farm to Fork. This year, Ag Day set out to help consumers become more knowledgeable about their food and our growing industry.

Ag Day was kicked off Monday evening with speaker Marie Bowers from the Ag Chat Foundation, who grew up on a grass seed farm in Harrisburg, Oregon. She spoke about how Ag Chat on Twitter, helps keep farmers involved in social media to see what is going on in the world of agriculture and tell their story to consumers. Marie talked about her experiences with twitter defending agriculture from people who are misinformed about what we do or tweet misleading information.

On Tuesday, the clubs in the College of Agricultural Sciences and the Forestry Club came together in the MU Quad to show the OSU community and visiting FFA students how they are each involved in the process of producing food or other products that we use every day. Hundreds got the opportunity to actually participate in agriculture, from cleaning their own grain to hands on interactions with livestock, visitors got the chance to see agriculture in action. As fewer and fewer people produce the food and fiber we need, events such as Ag Day help us educate others and tell our story. Thank you to all the clubs and supporters who helped make this year’s event possible.

Often in the news we hear about different problems in agriculture all over the United States. Some of these problems may include water rights for farmers or the recent issues facing the Bundy Ranch in Nevada. I order to discuss these and other important issues in agriculture, we hosted experts from different of agriculture to hear their views on ethics topics from the perspective of where they work and live.

This year’s panel consisted of Katie Fast from the Oregon Farm Bureau, Charlene Troost from the Oregon Department of Agriculture, Karen Samek from Darigold, and Jack Gourley of Gourley Farms in Scio.

Each of them talked about their experiences in agriculture and the different problems that they have come across. The panelists presented many diverse views on topics, from a production standpoint, government standpoint, and advocacy organization view. While our industry consists of many opinions on a range of topics, it is the willingness to discuss these views that helps move our industry forward. We appreciate the time each of our speakers took to help educate our council members.

Oregon is known for its diversity in agriculture from cranberries to fish hatcheries. Each part of our state is known for a different emphasis in agriculture, and each year the Executive Council visits a distinct area of Oregon as part of the Spring Ag Industry Tour. This year, our group focused on the Oregon Coast and Portland area.

The tour started with the Oregon Farm Bureau in Salem where they talked about current issues facing Oregon Ag Producers including the new food regulations making their way through Washington. The tour also included a stop at the OSU Food Innovation Center in Portland to learn about how local foods get tested and marketed with a value added emphasis. Other stops included Tilla-Bay Farms in Tillamook, where the farmer uses a robotic milking system for his dairy, and the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center where participants got to see some the latest research being applied to help protect our fisheries. Overall, the tour exposed our members to new areas of our industry and related fields and helped broaden their perspective of what Agriculture looks like in our great state.

On February 28^th, the Agricultural Executive Council hosted the College of Agricultural Science’s annual dance and social event. The council would like to thank the Country Western Dance Club who did an excellent job of supplying the music and dancing, as well as the Meat Science Club who prepared an amazing pulled pork dinner. Several clubs were represented with over 180 people in attendance. Though a social event, the most important aspect of the dance is the collection of non-perishable food items, which was donated this year to the Corvallis food bank.  The council would like to thank everyone in attendance who helped make this event a fun, safe, and successful opportunity for clubs and students in the college to network and socialize.

The Agricultural Executive Council held their annual Etiquette Dinner on Jan. 22^nd at the Oldfield Animal Teaching Facility. This year’s event was facilitated by Brian Field and Royce Ann Simmons from Harvest Capital Company in Canby, Oregon. Harvest Capital Company is a provider of long-term capital for agriculture.

Those in attendance had the opportunity to learn proper etiquette in a variety of settings, including a business dinner or interview with a potential employer over a meal. The speakers also discussed professional attire, meal and table etiquette, and communicating as professionals – providing examples of situations form their own business and hiring practices.  Students in attendance also had the opportunity to network with their peers from other clubs and organizations, and will hopefully share their knowledge when they return to their respective club meetings.

Students from the College of Agricultural Sciences have continued to set the standard for professionalism and we appreciate the time Mr. Field and Ms. Simmons dedicated to the continued success of our students.