Nashville, Tennessee
January 10, 2008
Robert G. Lemon, Ph.D., professor
and Texas AgriLife Extension Service agronomist for cotton with
Texas A&M University in
College Station, Texas, has been recognized by his peers from
across the Cotton Belt as the 2007 Extension Cotton Specialist
of the Year.
Lemon received the award at the Extension Cotton Specialist’s
annual banquet on Jan. 10, during the Beltwide Cotton
Conferences in Nashville, Tennessee.
Sponsored by Bayer CropScience, the award and banquet has been a
featured event at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences since 1984.
Extension cotton specialists representing every cotton-producing
state select a recipient annually based on leadership and
industry service.
Travis Miller, professor, Texas AgriLife Extension program
leader and associate head of the Soil and Crop Science
Department at Texas A&M University, has worked with Lemon since
he was a graduate student at TAMU.
“Whatever is happening in cotton, Robert is on top of it,” he
said. “He coordinates well with other specialists around the
state. Robert has the best interests of cotton and cotton
farmers at heart, and I couldn’t be more pleased for him.
“Robert is not bashful,” Miller continued. “He’s energetic,
forward-thinking, well-organized and works well with people. He
has a natural analytical ability to readily develop and
implement a solution to any problem. Robert has had a great deal
of success because of the way he thinks and his ability to
relate well to producers and producer organizations.”
For example, Lemon initiated the successful chemical stalk
destruction program. Timely cotton stalk destruction is
important in boll weevil management. In regions engaged in the
Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Program (approximately 1 million
acres), this production practice reduces post-harvest spraying
operations, decreases pesticide use and conserves program and
producer funds.
Randy Boman, Ph.D., Texas AgriLife Extension Service cotton
specialist at Lubbock, and the 2005 Extension Cotton Specialist
of the Year, said Lemon is a skilled communicator and an
excellent resource for his cotton grower clientele.
“He is an outstanding Extension specialist and works extremely
hard to keep Texas Extension agents and producers informed of
rapid changes in the cotton patch,” he said. “Robert has a
comprehensive educational program supported by timely,
well-designed and high-quality research trials.
“He’s a tremendous thinker,” Boman added. “He thinks outside of
the conventional wisdom to truly bring valuable educational
programs to the cotton grower. Robert was instrumental in the
development of the 2005 Cotton Resource CD for Texas, which was
updated to a DVD format in 2007. This DVD includes a tremendous
amount of production information to help answer producer
questions, as well as those by Extension agents, ginners and
consultants.”
Boman said Lemon is a “great team player who is committed to the
success of the Texas cotton industry. He is most deserving of
this award, and I think it speaks volumes of his contributions
to the cotton industry. I am proud to call him my colleague.”
Lemon’s first success was with at the Vernon AgriLife Research
and Extension Center in the Rolling Plains. Several years later,
when the state peanut specialist position opened Miller said
Lemon turned the program around. An Extension reorganization and
the retirement of long-time Extension cotton specialist James
Supak brought Lemon back to cotton.
“When Dr. Supak retired, we gave Robert the statewide position
and he took to it like a duck to water,” Miller said. “Robert
has a way of making the programs he works with very successful.”
Steve Nichols, Bayer CropScience U.S. agronomic manager, said
the company is proud to sponsor this longstanding award.
“Extension is the backbone of our industry, and we are pleased
to congratulate Robert Lemon on this achievement,” Nichols said.
To support his research focus, Lemon has successfully obtained
$900,000 in funding from private, federal and state agencies. He
has refereed 14 journal publications, written 23 Extension
bulletins, eight technical publications, 71 abstracts and
proceedings, two production guides, one book chapter and has
been quoted in more than 112 popular press articles.
Lemon received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in
agronomy from Texas A&M University. He and his wife Sharon have
been married for 20 years and have two children.
Bayer AG is a global research-based and growth-oriented
enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care,
nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience AG, a
subsidiary of Bayer AG with annual sales of about EUR 5.7
billion (2006), is one of the world’s leading innovative crop
science companies in the areas of crop protection,
non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology.
The company offers an outstanding range of products and
extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture and
for non-agricultural applications. Bayer CropScience has a
global workforce of about 17,900 and is represented in more than
120 countries.
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