Division of Agriculture has three inductees in the 2024 class of the Agriculture Hall of Fame

By the U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

LITTLE ROCK — Three of this year’s inductees to the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame — Fred Bourland, Mark Cochran and Charles Looney — have connections to the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

“The selection of these three into the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame truly attests to the quality and national impact of the people we have working for the Division of Agriculture on behalf of Arkansas’ agriculture industry," said Deacue Fields, vice president-agriculture and head of the Division of Agriculture. “There is no greater honor — not only for these men, but also for those of us who work with them.”

Fred Bourland, Charles Looney and Mark Cochran are all to be inducted into the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame in 2024. All have Division of Agriculture connections. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)

Fred Bourland is a legend in the cotton industry. Bourland grew up on a farm in northeastern Arkansas and went to the University of Arkansas to escape. It didn’t work.

With Ph.D. in hand in 1978, Bourland went to work as an assistant professor and cotton breeder at Mississippi State University. In 1988, he came back to Arkansas as a professor to breed cotton varieties and teach at the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. In 1997, Bourland moved to Keiser – roughly 10 miles from his family’s Mississippi County farm – to continue his cotton breeding and research program while serving as director for the Northeast Research and Extension Center. In 2016, he stepped down as director and now focuses on cotton variety development.

His honors include the 2000 Genetics Research Award from the National Cotton Council, the 2010 International Cotton Researcher of the Year from the International Cotton Advisory Committee and the 2015 Cotton Research and Promotion Program Hall of Fame from the Cotton Board and Cotton, Inc., among others.

Mark Cochran spent 40 years working to improve the productivity and profitability of Arkansas farmers and ranchers as a faculty member at the University of Arkansas, including 10 years as vice president of agriculture for the UA System and head of the U of A System Division of Agriculture. He retired in 2021.

Cochran served as chairman of the national Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, from which he earned the President’s Award. One of the most significant accomplishments of Cochran’s career was the creation of the COTMAN program, a computer-based cotton production guide widely used by farmers to help manage costs and improve yield efficiencies.

Cochran also led efforts to obtain funding for the construction of the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences in Fayetteville, the Northeast Rice Research and Extension Center in Harrisburg and the expansion of the highly successful Arkansas Discovery Farms program, which now encompasses 13 farms and delivers scientific analysis to help determine the effectiveness of on-farm conservation practices.

Cochran came to Arkansas in 1982 to start his teaching career after earning his master’s and Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Michigan State University. He earned a bachelor’s degree from New Mexico State University.

Cattle have been a large part of Charles Looney’s life since he was a young boy in Camden. He is recognized internationally as an expert in cattle genetics and reproductive technologies. He spent 35 years in the industry in Texas before returning to his home state in 2018 as professor of cattle genetics improvement for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. His expertise centers on embryo transfer, in-vitro fertilization, tissue banking for cloning, timed breeding and on-the-farm use of these technologies to improve beef cattle genetics.

Looney has graduate degrees from the University of Arkansas and Louisiana State University. He founded two cattle genetics companies in Texas, namely OvaGenix and Ultimate Genetics, after serving as a scientist and consultant in the field for several years. While he was working for Granada Biosciences, Looney was on the team that produced the first embryo-derived bovine clones. His work at Ultimate Genetics included the world’s first transgenic cloned calves and the first cloned bull.

Looney earned the President’s Award for Outstanding Service from the American Embryo Transfer Association in 2019 and an Award of Distinction from the University of Arkansas in 2014. The Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association presented him with its Producer Education Award in 2022.

“What an amazing group of farmers and those who help our farmers make agriculture Arkansas’ No. 1 business sector,” said Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Chair Debbie Moreland of Roland. “Agriculture is such a critical cultural and economic part of Arkansas. It is what binds so much of our state together."

“These we will induct have made a national impact on rice, soybeans, cattle and cotton and have helped steer the academic and research efforts that underpin Arkansas agriculture."

“I say this often to my friends, and it bears repeating; agriculture is one of the great success stories of our state. The Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame is pleased to bring recognition to these individuals who have impacted our state’s largest industry in such a positive way.”

Class XXXVI induction ceremonies are set for 11:30 a.m. March 1 at the Grand Ballroom of the DoubleTree Hotel in Little Rock. Contact Cindra Jones at 501-228-1609 for ticket information or click here to purchase tickets online.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.

Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame inducts new honorees; Three of five inductees have extension connections

By Tracy Courage
U of A System Division of Agriculture

LITTLE ROCK — Jessie “J.D.” Vaught of Horatio, Arkansas, a pioneer in contract livestock production in the state, was thrilled to learn a few months ago that he would be inducted into the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame. He passed away in late 2022, but not without knowing that he and his life’s work would be celebrated.

INDUCTEES — Five new Arkansans have been inducted into the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame. Image courtesy Arkansas Farm Bureau.

On March 3, he was posthumously inducted into the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the Little Rock Convention Center. His daughter Carla Vaught, a longtime extension agent with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, accepted the award on his behalf.

“He was an agricultural risk taker, as all the good ones are,” Carla Vaught said of her father.

Four people were inducted, including two other honorees with connections to the Division of Agriculture through the Cooperative Extension Service and Arkansas Discovery Farms.

The other inductees are:

• Ellis Bell of Forrest City, a fourth-generation farmer who owns and operates an Arkansas Century Farm.

• Bert Greenwalt of Jonesboro, Arkansas State University professor of agricultural economics. He co-founded and directs the college’s Agribusiness Conference, sponsors the Agribusiness Club and manages the Greenwalt Company farm.

• Rice farmer Chris Isbell of Humnoke, the first to grow Koshihikari rice outside of Japan. He sells rice to sake breweries around the world.

• Steve Stevens of Tillar, a longtime cotton farmer who was an early adopter of computerized-hole selection for irrigation and the Cotton Management program.

The Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame began in 1987 to promote awareness of agriculture’s role in the state’s culture and economy and honor those who helped local communities and the state prosper. This year’s five inductees increase the organization’s number of honorees to 181.

“Our state wouldn’t be as great and our agricultural industry wouldn’t be as successful without these individuals,” Arkansas Secretary of State Wes Ward said.

Gov. Sarah Sanders couldn’t attend but delivered comments via recorded video played for the group of more than 350.

“Agriculture is the backbone of our state’s economy and the largest industry,” she said. “You can’t go anywhere without seeing the impact of agriculture in our state. I’m committed to keeping it strong and dynamic.”

Early celebration for Vaught family

When J.D. Vaught’s health began declining, the family decided to share news of his award with him at Thanksgiving last year.

“All of us were there – all 18 of us — and we clapped for him and told him how proud we were of him,” Carla Vaught recalled. “He was really, really tickled. He wanted to make it here. That was his goal.”

Carla Vaught, who retired from the Division of Agriculture after working 33 years as an agent with the Cooperative Extension Service, accepted the award with J.D. Vaught’s youngest grandson, Ryan Vaught. Also present were the elder Vaught’s three sons and their spouses: Joey Vaught and wife Lori; Jon Vaught and Rep. DeAnn Vaught; Jason and Emilee Vaught; and grandchildren and a great-grandson.

In the late 1960s, Vaught built chicken houses and secured a contract with a poultry company to raise their chickens. The style of operation would become the standard that continues today.

“He was one of the first to do integrated poultry,” Carla Vaught said. “Then he saw an opportunity to do the same thing with hogs with the Cargill Company, so we raised hogs from 1974 until early 2022. “That was our livelihood. My father never worked at an hourly wage job. It was always farming.”

Vaught used innovations such as performance records and artificial insemination to improve purebred Charolais in the early 1970s and Angus cattle in the 1980s.

Vaught was a member of the Arkansas Farm Bureau state board of directors from 1991-99, a Sevier County Cattlemen’s Association officer and served on the Farm Credit Association board for many years.

The 400-acre family farm that Vaught owned and operated from 1963 until his death was a family operation. Extension, too, played a role in the farm’s success by providing research-based information to the Vaught family.

“Former Sevier County agents Thurman Ray and Ralph Tyler were very influential in helping Daddy,” Carla Vaught said.

Extension Connections 

Ellis Bell of Forrest City operates an Arkansas Century Farm established in 1878. His great-great-grandfather purchased the land after his return from the Civil War. He also founded Bell’s Ag Tech and Bell Community Services to advance interest in agriculture among minority youth. He developed programs to teach young people about where food comes from and who grows it.

“I’m overwhelmed to be standing here where so many people have stood before me and will stand here after me,” he said. “It’s been a long journey for me.”

He credited extension personnel for helping him through the years.

Steve Stevens works closely with researchers from the Division of Agriculture to improve farming practices.

“My dad always said, ‘Leave the land better than when you found it’,” he said during his acceptance speech. That advice has shaped much of his work.

One of the more significant seedbed-preparation innovations was first implemented in Arkansas on Stevens’ farm in the early 1990s. He was an early adopter of computerized-hole selection for irrigation and the cotton management program. Arkansas Discovery Farms selected Stevens’ fields for cotton research in 2013. In 10 years, more data on water use, water quality and nutrient loss has been collected on his farm than any other farm in America.

Stevens credited several Division of Agriculture faculty and staff who assisted with the research, including retired extension entomologist Gus Lorenz; Mike Daniels, who oversees collection of data; and retired extension cotton agronomist Bill Robertson, who recommended cover crops, which led to improved yield.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk.