FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For a high-resolution photo of the winner, click here (will activate link when photo is available).
For more information contact:
Joe Cassady, executive director, Beef Improvement Federation, North Carolina State University; 919-513-0262; www.BIFconference.com; www.beefimprovement.org
Burt Rutherford Honored with
BIF Ambassador Award
HOUSTON, Texas. (April 19, 2012) — The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) honored Burt Rutherford of BEEF magazine with the Ambassador Award during the organization's 44th annual meeting and research symposium in Houston, Texas, April 18-21. This award is given annually by BIF to a member of the media for his or her efforts in spreading news of BIF and its principles to a larger audience.
Rutherford has nearly 30 years' experience communicating about beef industry issues. A Colorado native and graduate of Colorado State University (CSU) with a degree in agricultural journalism, he now works from his home base in Amarillo, Texas, in the heart of cattle feeding country.
Rutherford grew up on a small acreage in Northern Colorado, where he showed steers in 4-H and learned early the meaning of manual labor, working for his father and the cow trader across the road. Undeterred by the trail of worn-out gloves and dirty boots he left behind, he went off to the university to obtain his degree. While at CSU, he was a member of the Rodeo Club and occasionally finagled a spot on the rodeo team. While taking classes, he worked a variety of jobs to pay for his diploma, including ranch hand, livestock auction crew, custom hay baler and truck driver.
Rutherford began his career in agricultural journalism while still in college, working part-time for the North American Limousin Foundation (NALF). After graduating from CSU, he joined NALF full-time as its first communications director, occupying a small office on the first floor of the old Livestock Exchange Building in the Denver stockyards.
After several years in the seedstock end of the industry, Rutherford moved up to the fourth floor of the Exchange Building when he took a job as a writer-reporter for the Western Livestock Journal, a weekly newspaper for the commercial cattle industry in the West.
While there, he ascended to the role of editor before moving on to the Texas Cattle Feeders Association (TCFA), headquartered in Amarillo, Texas, as the organization's communications director and the editor of its weekly TCFA Newsletter and Cattle Feeders Annual.
He remained at TCFA for 21 years before becoming senior editor of BEEF magazine. Rutherford's goal at BEEF is the same as it has been throughout his career — produce informative, well-written information that helps readers understand the production and marketing environment in which they operate, and how to navigate the many twists and turns in an industry that is inherently dominated by the unmanageable.
An avid outdoorsman. He has two adult daughters, one an attorney in Denver and the other a registered nurse in the making. His wife, Debby, is principal of a dual-language elementary school in Amarillo.
He was presented the BIF Ambassador Award at a luncheon Thursday, April 19, in Houston.
For more information about this year's symposium, including additional award winners and coverage of the meeting and tours, visit www.BIFconference.com. For more information about the BIF organization, visit www.beefimprovement.org.
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Editor's Note: This article is provided as a news release by the Beef Improvement Federation. For a high-resolution photo of the winner, additional award announcements and coverage of the meeting, visit the Awards page at www.BIFconference.com.
The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) was formed more than 40 years ago as a means to standardize beef cattle performance programs and methodologies and to create greater awareness, acceptance and usage of these concepts of genetic improvement. BIF represents more than 40 state and national beef cattle associations. For more details about the BIF organization, contact Executive Director Joe Cassady at 919-513-0262.
