Texas, USA
February 17, 2023
With 68 registrants the annual membership meeting was larger than last year with respect to attendees. The business meeting and technology transfer portions of the meeting, held Monday, went very well and both handled association business and hosted excellent presentations by university and AgriLife staff, industry, and state government.
Monday morning started with officer and board member nominations and elections. Luke Turner moves from President to Immediate Past President, Chad Kriegshauser moves from Vice President to President. and Brett Bamert moves from Board Member to Vice President. Thank you Luke for your contributions and leadership! We have a new version of a strategic plan, a new website ready to launch (watch for it soon!), TSTA now participates in a leadership program in conjunction with the Texas Feed & Grain Association, and we have a streamlined board meeting process thanks to Luke.
Brett's move to Vice President left a board vacancy which was filled by Billy McClenney from Frontier Hybrids. Board members remaining include Art McIntee and Drew Morano, both agreeing to extend their board service another year, Rusty Smallwood, and Rachel Horton.
Doug Richards, from RiceTec, moves off the board after his tenure as Immediate Past President. We will truly miss Doug's counsel but thankfully he isn't going anywhere soon and we'll still be able to tap his expertise.
The morning session continued with an AgriLife wheat breeding update by Dr. Jackie Rudd followed by an industry wheat breeding update by Racey Padilla from TriCal Superior Forages. Janie Hurley provided an overview of how the university protects intellectual property and her office's role in releasing new plant/seed varieties. Dr. Rick Vierling, Texas Foundation Seeds, provided an update on facilities and programs and outlined a process for recertification of seed should it be necessary.
All presenters then participated in a panel discussion answering a multitude of questions form the assembled attendees. This was a fabulous addition to our typical agenda and made process much clearer and helped us understand everyone's role in new variety releases - especially our role as growers.
The TSTA executive vice president provided a "state of the association" snapshot at lunch. Covered topics included the association's financial status, scholarships, new initiatives at member outreach, and plans for the coming year.
Dr. Gerald Smith kicked off the afternoon session with a forage legume breeding update. Forages included in the update were white flower sweet clover, Lablab, forage cowpeas, winter peas and a new forage ryegrass.
Dr. Tony Falk, with Texas Native Seeds, continued with what it takes to havethe right seed available for restoration and how Texas Natives interacts with the USDA Plant Materials Centers. Following Tony the three directors of the Texas-based PMCs presented individual updates. Shelly Maher, from Kingsvill, Alan Shadow from Nacogdoches, and Brandon Carr from Know City. Travis Jez, agronomist and restoration specialist with TxDOT provided a very informative overview of how TxDOT approaches restoration.
Similar to the morning session the afternoon presenters participated in a panel discussion, along with Janie Hurley, answering a myriad of questions from meeting attendees. It was an excellent session and all present would likely agree it was informative and fast-paced.
Scholarship Fundraising
Sunday virtually all attendees took part in the CornHole Tournament hosted and administered by Rusty Smallwood. A very big THANK YOU to Rusty for doing everything necessary to have a great time!
Monday evening the President's Reception & Dinner also included a raffle for all manner of gifts provided by the membership to help fund our scholarships and the TSTA Foundation. Between the CornHole Tournament and the raffle your generousity contributed over $4K to "the children." Thank you one and all for your generosity. We are likely now in a position to endow a scholarship that includes a matching contribution or to complete an endowment of one of our scholarships that has little ways to go. The board will be examining the choices soon.
This was good meeting. Please speak to those who attended and listen to their assessment - and plan to come next year!
Thank you RiceTec, Turner Seed Company, Richardson Seeds, Ltd., Scott Seed, Co., Nufarm, SoDak Labs, and TriCal for you generous sponsorship!
It would be very difficult to host an annual meeting without the help from our sponsors!
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