WASHINGTON, D.C. — John Stierna has been chosen as the recipient of the Norman A. “Norm” Berg Conservation Legacy Award. He received the award given by the National Capital Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS), a scientific and education organization for conservation professionals.

Following his retirement as the chief of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Berg worked as a senior advisor at the American Farmland Trust (AFT) for more than 25 years until his death, while Stierna joined the AFT staff following his retirement as the senior economist at NRCS to work on conservation policy for the farm bill.

Stierna has over 45 years of experience in natural resources and agriculture as an economist and policy analyst in both the public and private sectors. He now serves as a natural resource economics consultant.

He earned BS and MS degrees in agricultural economics from Michigan State University, and grew up on a Minnesota dairy farm.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — At the U.S. Grains Council’s (USGC) 51st annual Board of Delegates Meeting, the council delegate body elected its 2011-12 leadership to serve on the board of directors.

The USGC welcomed a new chair, Wendell Shauman of the Illinois Corn Marking Board (ICMB). Shauman and his wife, Janet, operate a corn and soybean farm in western Illinois near the Mississippi River. Their farm operation also includes a small cow herd.
 Shauman graduated from Monmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and earned his master’s in agronomy and doctorate in quantitative genetics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The newest member of the officer team is Ron Gray, ICMB, who was elected as secretary. The slate of officers also includes: Vice Chair Don Fast of Montana Wheat and Barley Committee; Treasurer Julius Schaaf of Iowa Corn Promotion Board; and Past Chair Terry Vinduska of Kansas Corn Commission.

The USGC also elected two at-large members, including reelecting Darrel McAlexander of Iowa Corn Promotion Board.

PENDLETON, Ind. — Local Case IH dealer Bane Equipment is pleased to introduce Ty Crone as the newest precision farming specialist at the Pendleton location.

Crone brings several years of experience to the team, including positions in sales and technology for other implement dealers in Indiana as well as experience working on his family farm in Eminence, Ind.

Bane Equipment is a Case IH dealer with six locations Indiana, now in its 44th year in business. Bane offers new and used equipment, service and customer support. It has locations in Wingate, Crawfordsville, Lebanon, Remington, Terre Haute and Pendleton.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Nineteen farmer-leaders will be sworn in as directors of the United Soybean Board (USB) in December, after receiving appointment recently by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The 19 soybean farmers include seven new appointees and 12 returning directors. These include, from the Farm World area: James L. Stillman and Larry K. Marek of Iowa, Dwain L. Ford of Illinois, Michael A. Beard of Indiana, Keith N. Tapp of Kentucky, R. Alan Moore of Michigan, Daniel J. Corcoran of Ohio and John R. Butler of Tennessee.

All appointees, who will serve three-year terms, will be sworn in on Dec. 6 at USB’s annual meeting in St. Louis. Qualified state soybean boards nominated all of the soybean farmers selected by the agriculture secretary to serve on USB.

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — While summer wound down, growers were ramping up their efforts to become the most effective leaders possible through the National Corn Growers Assoc. (NCGA) Advanced Leadership Training Program, co-sponsored by Syngenta. NCGA announced the second class, which met recently in Greensboro, N.C., to hone their leadership skills and prepare to lead the industry forward.

The program, which provides intensive leadership training to a handful of well-qualified applicants, aims to help develop top-notch state and national leadership that is empowered to share their skill set within the industry and community. This program builds upon the Leadership Academy that has helped develop corn industry leadership since 1986.

Attending Advanced Leadership Training this year were Bob Bowman (DeWitt, Iowa); Bill Chase (Wolsey, S.D.); Morris Heitman (Mound City, Mo.); Darrin Ihnen (Hurley, S.D.); Paul Taylor (Esmond, Ill.); and Kevin Skunes (Arthur, N.D.). In March 2012, they will meet again for Advanced Leadership II, which covers lobbying and coalition building, legal and fiduciary training, public policy briefings and agency visits.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Four Hoosier soybean farmers were recently elected to serve on the board of directors of the Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA). Each year, ISA conducts an election to place farmer-leaders on its board of directors representing each of the state’s four districts. This year two of the four districts had contested races.

In District 2, Jerry Osterholt of Roanoke was elected to serve on the board and David Lowe from Dunkirk was reelected to another term. District 2 includes Adams, Allen, Blackford, Dekalb, Delaware, Grant, Henry, Huntington, Jay, La Grange, Madison, Noble, Randolph, Steuben, Wayne, Wells and Whitley counties,

Shelley McDaniel of Boonville and Joe Steinkamp of Evansville were both reelected to  represent District 3, which includes Clay, Daviess, Dubois, Fountain, Gibson, Greene, Knox, Martin, Montgomery, Owen, Parke, Pike, Posey, Putnam, Spencer, Sullivan, Tippecanoe, Vanderburgh, Vermillion, Vigo, Warren and Warrick counties.

In the two districts with uncontested races, three current ISA directors will serve another term on the board. At its August meeting, the ISA board also voted to fill a vacant seat in District 1.

Representing soybean farmers in District 1, Joe Tuholski of La Porte joins the board in December and Adam Renbarger of Wabash continues to serve for another term. District 1 includes Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Elkhart, Fulton, Howard, Jasper, Kosciusko, La Porte, Lake, Marshall, Miami, Newton, Porter, Pulaski, St. Joseph, Starke, Tipton, Wabash and White counties.

Linda Bacon of Milroy and Carl Kissell of Shelbyville continue to represent District 4, which includes Bartholomew, Boone, Brown, Clark, Crawford, Dearborn, Decatur, Fayette, Floyd, Franklin, Hamilton, Hancock, Harrison, Hendricks, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Johnson, Lawrence, Marion, Monroe, Morgan, Ohio, Orange, Perry, Ripley, Rush, Scott, Shelby, Switzerland, Union and Washington counties.

The recently-elected directors will begin on the board in December 2011 and will serve a three-year term.