Mac Young receives Superior Service award for program specialists

BRYAN –  Mac Young, a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service risk management program specialist in Corpus Christi, has received a Superior Service Award in the agency’s program specialist category.

Superior Service Awards recognize AgriLife Extension faculty and staff members who provide outstanding performance in AgriLife Extension education or other outstanding service to the organization and to Texans. The award was presented Jan. 12 during the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Conference awards dinner at the Brazos Expo Center in Bryan.

Since 2006, Young has assisted agricultural producers with risk management decisions through the Financial and Risk Management Assistance program, a major component of AgriLife Extension’s Texas Risk Management Education Program.

The program helps producers analyze farm and ranch operations in making long-term strategic planning decisions, Young’s nomination states. The analysis includes a comprehensive report of the operations’ liquidity, solvency, profitability, repayment capacity and financial efficiency. Most reports are 75-150 pages and are prepared by gathering data from individual producers in a series of one-on-one meetings. They are confidential and not published.

The nomination states that Young has produced 391 analyses — 213 in the past five years – that involved 40 counties in South Texas and represented 424,000 acres and almost $510 million in producer net worth.

Young has made presentations about the benefits of the FARM Assistance program at over 90 county programs, speaking to almost 5,000 producers.

As a result of Young’s work, 35 percent of participants adopted alternative actions valued at $147,331 per individual, with an average annual benefit of $25,347.

In letters of commendation, Daryl Wiggington of U-2 Farms in El Campo, wrote, “FARM assistance and Mac Young kept us from continuing in a direction that would have ultimately put us out of business.”

“It was a pleasure to work with Mac Young,” wrote John Bremer of John E. Bremer Farms in Odem, Texas. “The FARM program is a very convenient, economical tool to study the business side of a farm operation. It helps give confidence to one’s various decisions. With the tool, it would be difficult to obtain the same information in a timely manner. Mac Young is the type of person with whom I have full confidence. He is truly a professional in his field.”

Eric and Maya Propst of Corpus Christi also praised Young’s abilities.

“We would recommend this course to anyone wanting to improve their business. Mac Young was very professional and knowledgeable.”

In addition to working with the FARM Assistance program, Young is also the primary contact and coordinator of the Ag Water Efficiency project in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, collaborating with the Texas Water Development Board, the Harlingen Irrigation District and Texas A&M University-Kingsville. His responsibilities involve working directly with agricultural producers and evaluating farm-level impacts of water conservation practices.

Wayne Halbert, general manager of the Harlingen Irrigation District, said that in working with Young on the water efficiency project, Young has headed up one of the most important aspects of the program: the economic evaluation of each irrigation technology.

“Young’s attention to detail in evaluating each demonstration site is one of the factors making the Texas AWE project a success,” Halbert wrote. “He has been patient with our producers, yet persistent enough to be able to deliver a product that helped both the producer and the researcher evaluating their work. Most importantly, Mac has been adamant in upholding the integrity of the program and protecting the privacy of individuals who have shared their financial records.

“Mac has faithfully attended our project meetings and has taken a lead role as we seek to evaluate and recommend the best options available to Rio Grande Valley farmers and irrigation districts to improve irrigation efficiencies.”

Other than risk management and irrigation assistance, Young has presented information on livestock and crop market updates, the economics of grass fed beef production, financial impact of drought, costs of restocking strategies, economics of grain storage bags and costs of wildlife management strategies.

He also was part of a statewide team effort to explain the new farm bill to producers.