Four With Bumpers College Ties Named to State Agriculture Hall of Fame

Photos Submitted

Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame inductees: (top from left) Bernie Daniels and Ed Fryar; (bottom) Donna L. Graham and Terry Siebenmorgen.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The 2019 Class of the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame was announced by Arkansas Farm Bureau earlier this week, and U of A's Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences is well represented.

The class includes retired professor L.B. (Bernie) Daniels of Fayetteville, University Professor of agricultural education Donna L. Graham and Distinguished Professor of food science Terry Siebenmorgen. The class also includes Ed Fryar, the founder of Ozark Mountain Poultry and former Bumpers College professor of agricultural economics. The fifth member of the class is David Walt, a retired soybean farmer.

The group will be honored with an induction luncheon, set for 11:30 a.m. on March 1 at Little Rock's Embassy Suites Hotel. The new selections bring to 169 the number of honorees in the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame, encompassing 32 classes of inductees.

L.B. "BERNIE" DANIELS

Daniels retired in 2001 from the U of A, having first joined as a faculty member in 1969. He bracketed his tenure as a faculty member with a decade of service as associate director of the Agricultural Experiment Station in Fayetteville. A native of Thornton (Calhoun County), Daniels began his collegiate experience at Southern State College (now Southern Arkansas University) in Magnolia, and earned his undergraduate and master's degrees at the U of A. He earned a doctorate at the University of Missouri.

As a faculty member, he taught more than 5,000 students in classes ranging from Introduction to Animal Sciences to Neonatal Physiology and Bio-Energetics. He published more than 70 peer-reviewed research articles and helped advance the understanding of ruminant nutrition for both dairy and beef cattle.

He was instrumental in fundraising for several U of A projects, including the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science, the U of A Center for Advanced Spatial Technology and the Pauline Whitaker Animal Science Center. He also aided in the development of the Food Safety Consortium between the U of A, Iowa State University and Kansas State University. He was named Distinguished Alumni from SAU in 2014.

ED FRYAR

Fryar started Ozark Mountain Poultry in 2000 after working 13 years as a professor of agricultural economics in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, and its predecessor, the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology. He grew the business to more than 1,800 employees and processed more than 1.2 million chickens per week. OMP focused on antibiotic free and non-GMO chicken products, servicing the retail and foodservice channels with its Forester Farmers Market brand. In just over a decade, OMP experienced significant growth in both customer base and product offerings — with sales reaching more than $280 million. Fryar also worked to establish direct buying channels with Arkansas grain producers. The company was also known for its RFID tracking of poultry during production and an incentive-based pay system that results in higher output and higher yields. Arkansas-based George's Inc. acquired OMP in 2018.

Fryar has served on the Council of Economic Advisors for Arkansas governors since 1983. He is also a member of the Agribusiness Council for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Before starting OMP, Fryar was a tenured professor in Bumpers College, focusing his research on grain and poultry marketing, and price risk management. He also worked for the United States Department of Agriculture. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the U of A and a doctorate. from the University of Minnesota.

DONNA L. GRAHAM

Graham has spent almost 50 years with the University of Arkansas System, starting in 1970 with the Cooperative Extension Service in Jefferson County. In 1985, she moved to the Fayetteville campus as a faculty member in the Department of Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology, and served 10 years as associate dean for academic programs.

Graham has received numerous teaching and advising awards, including the Spitze Land Grant Faculty Award for Excellence as well as recognition as a Distinguished Alumna from the U of A Alumni Association. As a faculty member, Graham created curriculum to effectively train future extension agents and strengthen the college core. A recent effort led to the creation of Ag*Idea, a consortium of 12 universities to share agriculture courses online. She has secured approximately $1.5 million in funding to support educational programs. Graham's career has been a progression of leadership beginning in the 1970s as the Southern Regional Director of the National Association of Extension 4-H Agents.

More recent roles include serving on the National Entomological Board, the Academic Program Section of the Board of Agriculture Assembly, American Public and Land-Grant Universities, and as president of the American Association for Agricultural Education, where she is a Senior Fellow. A native of Damascus (Faulkner County), Graham earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at the U of A, and a doctorate from the University of Maryland.

TERRY SIEBENMORGEN

Siebenmorgen is an international leader in rice research, particularly in processing and drying of the cereal grain. He serves as Distinguished Professor and director of the University of Arkansas Rice Processing Program, which he started in 1994. The ARPP is an industry-interactive, multidisciplinary effort focusing on rice processing operations and has sponsors from across the United States, South America, Europe and Japan.

Siebenmorgen began his faculty career at the U of A in 1984 as a food engineer, working in several areas of food processing. Since the late '80s, he has focused on rice processing in response to the strong need for research from the food industry. Among his many industry awards are being selected as Riceland Foods' Friend of the Farmer in 2012 and receiving the Distinguished Service Award from the Rice Technical Working Group in 2016. He also received designation as a Fellow with the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers and received the ASABE Distinguished Food Engineer Award in 2007. He was twice selected for the Texas Instruments Outstanding Research Award and earned the Spitze Land Grant University Faculty Award for Excellence.

A native of Scranton (Logan County), Siebenmorgen holds an undergraduate degree in agricultural engineering from the U of A, a master's degree from Purdue and a doctorate in engineering from the University of Nebraska.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.