April 30, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information contact:

Carrie Gilliam, communications coordinator, at 816-383-5100 or cgilliam@angus.org; or

Joe Cassady, executive director, Beef Improvement Federation, North Carolina State University, at 919-513-0262 or joe_cassady@ncsu.edu.

Click here to download photos of the winners.

Angus Producers Recognized During BIF Annual Meeting
Four Angus producers awarded honors in Houston, Texas.

The American Angus Association^® today applauds four of its producers for receiving national honors from the Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) during the organization’s 44th annual meeting and research symposium in Houston, Texas, April 18-21.

Leo McDonnell, Angus rancher from Columbus, Mont., and member of the Association Board of Directors, received the Pioneer Award for his lasting contributions to the improvement of beef cattle. McDonnell has played a significant role in performance reporting acceptance and documentation as the primary means to make genetic changes in cattle.

The Continuing Service Award, given to those who have made a significant contribution to the industry, was awarded to Brian McCulloh of Viroqua, Wis.; Dr. Tom Field of Denver, Colo.; and Dr. Larry Olson of Barnwell, S.C.

The recipients were presented the BIF awards during a luncheon on April 20.

The following information is provided by BIF.

Pioneer Award: Leo McDonnell

Born and raised in Billings, Mont., McDonnell is a fourth-generation rancher, who was raised around both feedlot and cow-calf operations. He and his wife, Sam, have four children (Steve, Darcey, Kelsey and Buffy) and 10 grandchildren.

McDonnell attended Texas Tech University and the University of Wyoming, studying animal nutrition for a feedlot background and animal science. He returned home in 1976 to help his father run the Midland Bull Test and managed a commercial feedlot, Patton and Davidson Feedlot.

Leo and Sam purchased their first ranch in 1987 near Reedpoint, Mont., and later moved their ranch to Rhame, N.D., where they graze about 350 registered cows. They also have a herd of registered cows in western Montana and maintain a fall-calving herd at Columbus, Mont., for a total of about 600 cows.

The couple purchased Midland Bull Test following the death of McDonnell's father in 1993. Known as "The Granddaddy of Performance," the test is recognized as a pioneer in the development and promotion of performance. Midland has grown to testing more than 2,000 bulls per year. It has often led the field in introducing breeders and ranchers to additional trait selection. It was one of the early seedstock programs to measure scrotal size, recognizing its importance to early fertility in female offspring, as well as its importance to bull fertility.

Midland was one of the pioneers in ultrasound, measuring for ribeye area (REA), intramuscular fat (IMF) and back fat (BF) in 1969 and 1970. It has now become the largest private facility to measure individual feed intake to assist in identifying more efficient cattle. Emphasis has been on efficiency as it relates to the cow herd and replacement females.

In 2008, Leo and Sam turned the management and operation of Midland Bull Test over to their son Steve Williams and his wife, Lindsay. They now concentrate their efforts on the cow herd, ranching, grandchildren and developing a national database for efficiency-tested cattle.

Leo has been involved in several industry groups, being a past chair of the Montana Cattle Feeders; a delegate in the mid-1990s for Montana, sitting on the NCBA International Trade Committee and the Research and Education Committee; a co-founder of R-CALF USA in 1998-1999; and currently a director of the U.S. Cattlemen's Association. Leo has also been active in the Montana Stockgrowers Association; the Montana Cattlemen's Association; and the Beartooth Stockgrowers Association.

He has testified on behalf of U.S. cattle producers at numerous Congressional hearings. He is credited with taking the lead in getting country-of-origin labeling (COOL) passed and has spent considerable time in Washington, D.C., advancing issues important to U.S. ranchers.

Leo has received numerous awards, including the 1999 Black Hills Stock Show Agri-Businessman of the Year and the 2000 Ag Advocate of the Year presented at the Billings Chamber of Commerce ag appreciation dinner.

Says Leo, "Life works best when you give back, and I believe this is true on a business and industry level."

Continuing Service Award: Brian McCulloh

Brian McCulloh was raised on a livestock farm near DeWitt, Iowa, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in animal science in 1981 from Iowa State University, where he met his wife, Lori. They have three children — Ryan, Matt and Allison.

McCulloh served as director of junior activities for the American Angus Association prior to joining Woodhill Farms, Viroqua, Wis., in 1984. He is managing partner at Woodhill, a sustainable partnership between Dan and Anne Borgen, and Brian and Lori. The operation has grown to include 260 cows and their calves on more than 1,000 acres of pasture, cropland and woods.

From the beginning, McCulloh has targeted the production of sound, functional, problem-free cattle using available objective breeding tools and selecting for the many phenotypic and behavior traits fundamental to sound animal husbandry. Woodhill Farms relies heavily on the use of expected progeny differences (EPDs) and complete Angus Herd Improvement Records (AHIR®) data to formulate its breeding program, which includes an embryo transfer (ET) program with cooperator herds. Woodhill has conducted annual bull sales since 1989 and conducted its first production female sale in the fall of 1998.

McCulloh is a past board member of the Wisconsin Angus Association, the Wisconsin Cattlemen's Association and the American Angus Association. He also is a past president of the Wisconsin Beef Improvement Association (WBIA). Locally, he served on the Chamber of Commerce, Agricultural Advisory Panel and the Athletic Booster Board, and he is a 4-H beef project leader.

Woodhill Farms was named 1996 Wisconsin Seedstock Producer of the Year by the WBIA. It was recognized in 2000 with the Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) Seedstock Commitment to Excellence Award.

McCulloh has judged Angus cattle at the National Junior Angus Show (NJAS), the National Western Stock Show (NWSS), the Fort Worth Stock Show and the Royal Melbourne Show in Australia. He also has spoken at seminars in New Zealand and Australia, in addition to Extension seminars in the Midwest.

McCulloh has served two terms on the BIF board of directors, serving as the at large representative from 2004 to 2009. He was elected president in 2009. While an officer, McCulloh helped spearhead a long-range planning effort for BIF. He has been a tireless servant to the BIF mission and its programs.

A 2009 BIF news release quoted McCulloh as saying, "We live in a scientific age of accelerated technology development. Somebody needs to help those in the production sector understand the new technologies so that we apply them appropriately. BIF is supposed to be that independent infrastructure that standardizes the development of genetic predictions and then helps producers apply those appropriately."

Continuing Service Award: Larry Olson

Dr. Olson was raised on an Oklahoma cattle and wheat farm in the northwest corner of Osage County, which is the southern end of the Flint Hills and cow country. His first cows were four registered Hereford heifers purchased from Codding Cattle Research at Foraker, Okla. Charles Codding, his second cousin, was one of the founders of Performance Registry International (PRI) and BIF.

Olson received his bachelor's degree in animal science from Oklahoma State University and master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Nebraska with BIF pioneers Gordon Dickerson and Larry Cundiff.

Recently retired, Olson spent 31 years as Clemson University's state extension beef cattle specialist at the Edisto Research & Education Center. He wrote the South Carolina Beef Cattle Improvement Program and created its performance records database. In 1982, he built the grazing-based Edisto Forage Bull Test program and managed 27 tests. The Edisto Forage Bull Test was one of the first central bull tests to offer expected progeny differences (EPDs) in the monthly progress reports, as well as one of the first tests to offer a website and to post its progress reports and sale catalogs online. Dr. Olson helped other states and organizations in the Southeast and Southwest develop grazing-based bull test programs, and he assumed numerous leadership roles in Clemson's performance testing programs and extension outreach activities.

Dr. Olson attended his first BIF meeting in 1973 in Omaha, with the 2012 symposium being his 27th meeting. Throughout BIF history he has served on numerous standing committees and provided unwavering commitment to the Guidelines Revisions and Producer Awards Selection committees for 20 years. He has been willing to serve in any role for the betterment of BIF and the cattle industry. Many of the times a behind-the-scenes workhorse, he has always kept the purpose of BIF and its role in performance in his sights.

Since retirement, Dr. Olson has established Olson Cattle Research, a horizontally integrated operation of consulting and registered Angus. An avid fisherman, he is never without a good fishing story.

Continuing Service Award: Tom Field

Dr. Field currently serves as the director of the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Prior to this, he served as the executive director of producer education for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), headquartered in Denver, Colo.

He joined NCBA after spending 18 years as a faculty member leading the Beef Cattle Management Systems in the Department of Animal Sciences at Colorado State University (CSU), where he had earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. During his tenure at CSU, he authored more than 100 articles on beef cattle production and beef industry practices. He served on the NCBA committee to develop the plan for the future needs of the U.S. beef industry, and he has been actively involved in a number of educational programs, quality assurance programs and industry audits.

In addition, he has been the consultant service provider for a dozen national and international breed organizations and businesses, and he is in high demand as a speaker at regional, national and international cattle industry conferences.

Dr. Field has been a workhorse on the BIF board of directors, serving in an NCBA-appointed position since 2009. He provided leadership as the BIF Long Range Planning Committee chairman and gave vision to the BIF board and planning committee members regarding education, research, communication, and guidelines and standardization for BIF.

His accomplishments and awards are numerous and include the 2004 Distinguished Faculty Award from CSU, the Colorado Farm Bureau and American Society of Animal Science. Dr. Field is also a partner in a cow-calf business with his family in western Colorado. He and his wife, Laura, have three sons in college — Justin, Sean and Trae.

Other Award Nominees

Several other Angus cattlemen were nominated for the seedstock producer of the year and the commercial producer of the year awards. Congratulations to Bianchi Ranches, Gilroy, Calif.; Everett and Julie Shepard, Stuart, Iowa; McCurry Bros. Angus, Sedgwick, Kan.; Springfield Angus, Louisburg, N.C.; Tanner Farms, Ellisville, Miss.; Williams Angus Farm, Newton, Ala.; Glenmary Farm, Rapidan, Va.; and Harold Bies of H&T Bies Cattle Co., Rapid City, S.D.

For more information about this year's symposium, including additional award winners and coverage of the meeting and tours, visit www.BIFconference.com. For more information about the BIF organization, visit www.beefimprovement.org.

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