Lubbock Cropping Systems Research Team receives Vice Chancellor’s Award
Contact: Dr. Jaroy Moore, 8-6-746-6101, j-moore@tamu.edu
COLLEGE STATION – A team of Texas A&M AgriLife scientists at Lubbock has received a Texas A&M AgriLife Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in the collaboration awards team category.
The Lubbock Cropping Systems Research Team, headquartered at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center, is comprised of Dr. Wayne Keeling, Texas A&M AgriLife Research professor-cropping systems and weed science; James Bordovsky, AgriLife Research senior research scientist; Dr. Terry Wheeler, AgriLife Research professor-plant pathology; Dr. Megha Parajulee, AgriLife Research professor, Faculty Fellow and Regents Fellow-cotton entomology; Dr. Jason Woodward; Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service plant pathologist, and Dr. Jane Dever, AgriLife Research professor-cotton breeding.
The honor was presented Jan. 14 during the 2016 the Vice Chancellor’s Awards in Excellence Ceremony in College Station.
Dr. Jaroy Moore, the center’s resident director of research, wrote in his letter of nomination that the team was assembled to address the unique crop-production challenges producers face on the Texas High Plains. Their objective has been to address important cotton production decision-making issues at the farm level. The overall goal has been to assure the profitability and future viability of cotton production in the Texas High Plains.
Moore wrote that the team has successfully partnered with Lamesa Cotton growers in utilizing their 160-acre farm for long-term research for over two decades. The partnership has allowed the scientists to expand their research from the small-plot level to larger scale experiments to demonstrate the outcomes to farmers. The team’s success led to the establishment of the Helms Farm in Hale County in 1999 and to the 2008 purchase of additional land and the installation of 22 acres of drip irrigation in Hale County.
“The producer-led initiatives in securing these research sites indicate producers’ enthusiasm and confidence in our scientists working as a team to provide additionally sound and economically viable production systems,” Moore wrote.
A few of the team’s notable achievements Moore cited, included a recent four-year study that showed limiting early season cotton irrigation could potentially reduce annual water requirements by more than 27 million gallons of water per year on the High Plains with only a relatively small decline in lint yield. He also noted their work to increase sustainable yield and quality of cotton, their work with new root-knot nematode resistant cotton varieties and a six-year Lygus bug damage study.
“I strongly believe that this team has been the most cohesive and productive group of scientists who exemplify the value of team research,” Moore concluded.
The Vice Chancellor’s Awards in Excellence were established in 1980 to recognize the commitment and outstanding contributions of Texas A&M AgriLife faculty, students and staff statewide.
