By Faith Peppers
Georgia Extension
Service
Don Shurley, a University of Georgia extension economist,
received the 2003 D.W. Brooks Award for Excellence in
Extension Oct. 6 in Athens, Ga.
Shurley is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading
cotton economists. He works as a member of the multidisciplinary
UGA cotton team through county educational meetings, workshops
and field days and as co-investigator on applied research
projects.
Shurley’s economic analysis provides crucial information to guide
Georgia cotton farmers’ decisions. His work shows that they can
improve their profits by $40 million annually with seed
technology changes and by $88 million with timelier defoliation
and harvest.
Volatile times
His educational efforts led the state’s cotton industry through a
time of rapid acreage expansion and political and economic
volatility. The value of Shurley’s work in this area is
immeasurable. He helped cotton farmers through three farm bills
and changes in trade policy.
The expansion of cotton acreage in Georgia created the need for
more ginning capacity. From 1993 to 1996, Shurley completed
feasibility studies for eight new cotton gins in Georgia, a $32
million investment.
The 2002 farm bill was the most wide-ranging, difficult and
complex of any farm bill in recent memory. Shurley led the UGA
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ educational
programming on the farm bill. He conducted 63 meetings attended
by more than 3,600 farmers, bankers and others.
He also helped the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service
Agency conduct farm bill training. And he developed a
computerized decision aid to help farmers and landowners make
informed decisions on complex issues.
Other winners
Other Brooks honorees this year were Reid Torrance, county
extension programs; Mark Compton, teaching; and Casimir Akoh,
research.
The D.W. Brooks award was established in 1981 to recognize
faculty members who make outstanding contributions in the CAES
teaching program. In 1983, the awards were expanded to include
research, extension and county extension programs. An award for
international agriculture was added in 1988 and is given in
even-numbered years
.
The awards include a framed certificate and $5,000 cash.
D.W. Brooks Lecture
Before the awards ceremony, Denis Avery, a senior fellow of the
Hudson Institute, delivered the 2003 D.W. Brooks Lecture, “Has
American Already Lost High-Yield Agriculture?”
The lecture and awards are named for the late D.W. Brooks,
founder of Gold Kist, Inc., and Cotton States Mutual Insurance
Companies. Brooks was an advisor on agriculture and trade issues
to seven U.S. presidents.
(Faith Peppers is a news editor for the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
