Serving Rural Nebraska Panhandle

I'm going to jump right into my topic tonight - Chuck Hibberd asked me to talk briefly about my ideas on serving rural Nebraska before our open-discussion. And serving rural Nebraska is a topic on which I have a great deal to say! So I'm going to talk fast here for 12 minutes or so, and then I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

Nebraska Cooperative Council 56th Annual Meeting

What a pleasure it is to be with you this morning - thank you for inviting me. I am looking forward to visiting with as many of you as possible while I am here today, and hope to have the opportunity to visit with you more as we meet again at other times and other places. One of the things I am always interested in knowing is what you perceive as Nebraska's greatest needs, now and in the future, and which of those Needs you think the University of Nebraska Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources can most efficiently and effectively address for our state. In the Institute we see ourselves as partners with Nebraska, and we seek ways we can work with Nebraska's residents to find the best solutions for our state's concerns.

Nebraska Bankers Association

Thank you for inviting me to be with you today. It is a real pleasure, and I look forward to visiting with you both individually and collectively, now and in the future. I'd looked forward to meeting with you all earlier in the year, but a death in our family took my wife Virginia and me to Texas at the time of your April meeting, so I am very glad to have this opportunity to be with you now.

Nebraska Cattlemen/Nebraska Cattle Women Conference

I’m so pleased to be here with you today, and I look forward to visiting and working with members of this group now and in the future. Since arriving in Nebraska nearly a year ago now on a snowy, blustery day, I’ve been delighted to take every opportunity that comes my way to get to know Nebraska and Nebraskans better. I want to know what you think are Nebraska’s greatest needs, now and in the future. I want to know how you think the University of Nebraska Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources can help meet those needs. I seek ways all of us, working together, can find the most efficient and effective solutions for Nebraska’s concerns.

IANR's Contributions to Nebraska's Future

One in four Nebraskans depends upon agriculture for employment. That fact, found in the 2001 Nebraska Agriculture Fact Card, a cooperative effort of the Nebraska Bankers Association, the Nebraska AgRelations Council, and the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, underscores the importance of agriculture to Nebraska, and the importance of the work conducted in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Agriculture Builders of Nebraska

Good morning. It is my very great pleasure to be here with you today, and to have this opportunity to visit with you about the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. I’m going to talk for just a few minutes about issues and highlights for the Institute, and then I’ve asked Dan Cotton, director of IANR’s Communications and Information Technology unit to illustrate some of the fine and innovative work being done in the Institute to benefit Nebraska.

Nebraska Hall of Agricultural Achievement Dinner

What a treat to be here tonight to celebrate the achievements of some wonderful new additions to the Nebraska Hall of Agricultural Achievement. I can think of few experiences more-gratifying than those in which we get to say a heartfelt “well-done and thank you" to people who make significant contributions to the world around them by the way they live their lives and by the places they choose to put their talents and energies.

The Nebraska State Grange

Thank you so much for inviting my wife Virginia and me to be with you today. It delights me to talk about land-grant universities in general, and about the land-grant university mission we take so very seriously in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources in particular, because I am so proud of the way our faculty and staff continually strive to contribute to and improve the economic and societal well-being of rural Nebraska, as well as all of Nebraska.

Nebraska Lead XX Morning Meeting

Good morning. I am delighted to be with you here this morning to offer my congratulations and my best wishes as you complete the LEAD program. This is a wonderful and significant accomplishment, and I certainly hope you all are celebrating and savoring it. I look forward with enthusiasm to watching your future contributions as leaders in agriculture, in your local communities, in Nebraska, and in our global community. I'd like to start my remarks this morning with one question: How many people in this room have ridden an elephant? Show of hands?

Nebraska Turfgrass Conference

I’m delighted to be here with you, and look forward to visiting with as many of you as possible both today and in the future. I’ve just completed one year in my job as University of Nebraska Vice President of agriculture and natural resources and Harlan Vice Chancellor of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and it has been a learning year for me. As I start this second year, I look forward to learning even more about Nebraska and its citizens, and one of the ways to best do this is to hear what you are thinking. I want to know what you consider Nebraska’s greatest needs, now and in the future. I want to know how you think the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources can help meet those needs. I seek ways all of us working together, can find efficient and effective solutions to Nebraska’s concerns, and I want to know your interests in our work – what you think we do well, what you think we could do better, what you think the needs of the future will be.

Nebraska Agri-Business Association

When I was with you back in August of 2001, I mentioned that in New Mexico I served on the board of the New Mexico Agricultural-Chemical and Plant Food Association, and have, I hope, some appreciation of the work you do. I also truly appreciate your interest in your support of the work conducted at the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Thank you for that! Your support, always critical, becomes even more so in such difficult, difficult economic times as our state finds itself in today. Nearly $4 million dollars was permanently slashed from the IANR budget in three rounds of budget cuts between October 2001 and August 2002, a result of Nebraska's continuing revenue shortfalls. At the same time, our frustrated IANR constituents make it clear that nearly $4 million of need did not disappear with our funding. Now more cuts are expected in this legislative session.

Agriculture Builders of Nebraska, Inc. Morning Session

Good morning! On behalf of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources representatives here this morning, I want to express our very real pleasure in being with you, and our very great appreciation of all that you do. We in the Institute value the Agriculture Builders of Nebraska highly. Your support for our work and the wise counsel of ABN members has been invaluable to me personally since my arrival in Nebraska, and I know that is true of the entire Institute, as well. In fact, the thoughtful perspective and the confidential advice of the ABN Executive Committee in the recent third-round of budget cutting decisions we faced in the Institute helped me work through what we had to do in that very, very difficult round of cuts.

Agriculture Builders of Nebraska, Inc.

There’s a story that a construction foreman one day noticed one of his workers pushing his wheelbarrow upside down around the work site. “Hey,” the foreman shouted, “turn that thing right side up!” The man with the wheelbarrow looked at him in surprise. “Don’t be silly,” he said. “Every time I do that, they put bricks in it!” I think of that story sometimes, in the midst of these difficult economic times, as our states, its people, and its university, in turn, wrestle with budge cuts. Wouldn’t it be great if we all could just turn our wheelbarrows over and say, “No thanks, no more brick! No more heavy loads to haul!”

Final Testimony on LR 141: Status of Nebraska Forest Service

Good morning, Chairman Wehrbein and members of the Appropriations Committee. I am John Owens, and I serve as Vice - President and Vice Chancellor of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak with you regarding Legislative Resolution 141 on the Nebraska Forest Service.

Community structure and dynamics of Monogenea and Trematoda in three North American cyprinid species in the Salt Valley Watershed, Nebraska.

An investigation was made of the communities of gill monogene genus Dactylogyrus (Platyhelminthes, Monogenea) and the populations of blackspot parasite (Platyhelminthes, Trematoda) of Pimephales promelas, Notropis stramineus, and Semotilus atromaculatus in 3 distinct sites along the 3 converging tributaries in southeastern Nebraska from 2004 to 2006. This work constitutes the first multi-site, multi-year study of a complex community of Dactylogyrus spp. and their reproductive activities on native North American cyprinid species. The biological hypothesis that closely related species with direct lifecycles respond differently to shared environmental conditions was tested. It was revealed that in this system that, Cyprinid species do not share Dactylogyrus species, host size and sex are not predictive of infection, and Dactylogyrus community structure is stable, despite variation in seasonal occurrence and populations among sites. The biological hypothesis that closely related species have innate differences in reproductive activities that provide structure to their populations and influence their roles in the parasite community was tested. It was revealed that in this system, host size, sex, and collection site are not predictive of reproductive activities, that egg production is not always continuous and varies in duration among congeners, and that recruitment of larval Dactylogyrus is not continuous across parasites’ reproductive periods. Hatch timing and host availability, not reproductive timing, are the critical factors determining population dynamics of the gill monogenes in time and space. Lastly, the biological hypothesis that innate blackspot biology is responsible for parasite host-specificity, host recruitment strategies and parasite population structure was tested. Field collections revealed that for blackspot, host size, sex, and collection month and year are not predictive of infection, that parasite cysts survive winter, and that host movement is restricted among the 3 collection sites. Finally, experimental infections of hosts with cercaria isolated from 1st intermediate snail hosts reveal that cercarial biology, not environmental circumstances, are responsible for differences in infection among hosts.