Agriculture business members meet at UW-River Falls, tour regional agriculture businesses

Members of the American Association of State Colleges of Agriculture and Renewable Resources (AASCARR) gathered at UW-River Falls on Oct. 8-10 for their annual meeting.

AASCARR membership is comprised of the non-land grant colleges of agriculture which account for 45 percent of the baccalaureate degrees awarded each year in the agriculture, food and renewable resource related majors in the 13 states represented by AASCARR, as well as nearly 20 percent of those degrees nationally. Wisconsin members of AASCARR include UWRF and UW-Platteville.

A component of each annual meeting includes a tour of regional area agribusinesses. While in western Wisconsin the group toured Sailer’s Meats in Elmwood, Eau Galle Cheese in Durand and Danzinger Vineyards in Alma, while ending the day with a tour of the UWRF Mann Valley Farm.

The business meetings incorporated a group lunch with Patti Lardie, Manager for Government Sales Case IH North America and other representatives of Case IH, visiting UWRF about the ongoing partnership that provides campus with equipment and technology.

Long-time agricultural broadcaster Orion Samuelson was back at UWRF in honor of the Centennial of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences (CAFES) and also joined the group for lunch.

At the election of new officers during the annual meeting, Dale Gallenberg, Dean of CAFES, was chosen as president-elect for 2012-13 and will move on to serve as president in 2013-14. Gallenberg will continue as chair of AASCARR’s Legislative Committee this year as well as the organization’s representative to the Academic Programs Committee on Organization and Policy (ACOP) under the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU).

The meeting concluded with a discussion and vote on a name change for AASCARR. To better align its name with other collaborating organizations, and to maintain its fundamental mission and vision, the group voted to change its name to the Non-land-grant Agricultural and Renewable Resources Universities (NARRU). The primary focus of the group in 2012-13 will be to secure funding for the Non-Land Grant Colleges of Agriculture capacity building grants program.