Baker/Cundiff Scholarship Winners
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Angie Stump Denton, Beef Improvement Federation Communication Coordinator, angiedenton@ksu.edu or 785-562-6197
June 9, 2017
Ahlberg, Upperman Win Baker/Cundiff Honors
ATHENS, Ga. — The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) presented Baker/Cundiff Awards to Cashley Ahlberg and Lindsay Upperman June 1 during the group’s annual meeting and symposium in Athens, Georgia.
The annual Frank Baker/Larry Cundiff Beef Improvement Essay Contest for graduate students provides an opportunity to recognize outstanding student research and competitive writing in honor of Frank Baker and Larry Cundiff.
Ahlberg is working on her doctorate in genetics and animal breeding at Kansas State University (K-State). Her essay was titled “The importance of water-efficient and adaptable beef cattle.”
Upperman is working on her master’s degree in animal biology at University of California-Davis. Her essay was titled “Management of lethal recessive alleles while optimizing genetic gain in beef cattle.”
Each year two winning essays are selected and published in the annual BIF Research Symposium and Annual Meeting Proceedings. Each winning author will receive a $1,000 scholarship.
Baker is widely recognized as the “Founding Father” of the BIF. He played a key leadership role in helping establish BIF in 1968 while he was chairman of the Department of Animal Science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Cundiff retired after 40 years as a research geneticist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. He was research leader of the genetics and breeding research unit at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center from 1976 until 2005. Cundiff has not only designed, conducted and published some of the most important beef breeding research of the 20th century, but also has lead in the transfer of new technology to the beef industry through his continued work in BIF and his presentations made across the nation and around the world.
More than 350 beef producers, academia and industry representatives were in attendance at BIF’s 49th annual convention. The organization’s mission is to help improve the industry by promoting greater acceptance of beef cattle performance evaluation.
For more information about this year’s symposium, including additional award winners and coverage of meeting and tours, visit www.BIFconference.com. For more information about BIF, visit www.BeefImprovement.org.
The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) is an organization dedicated to coordinating all segments of the beef industry — from researchers and producers to retailers — in an effort to improve the efficiency, profitability and sustainability of beef production. The organization was initiated almost 70 years ago to encourage the use of objective measurements to evaluate beef cattle. Continuing the tradition, BIF is now the clearinghouse for developing standardized programs and methodologies for recording of performance data for all traits, from birth weights to carcass traits. Its three-leaf-clover logo symbolizes the link between industry, extension and research.
