Continuing Service Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Angie Stump Denton, Beef Improvement Federation Communication Coordinator, angiedenton@ksu.edu or 785-562-6197

June 5, 2017

 

Elmore Presented Continuing Service Award

ATHENS, Ga. – The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) presented Michelle Elmore, Canton, Alabama, a BIF Continuing Service Award June 2 during the group’s annual meeting and symposium in Athens, Georgia.

Continuing Service Award winners have made major contributions to the BIF organization. This includes serving on the board of directors, speaking at BIF conventions, working on BIF guidelines and other behind-the-scenes activities. As BIF is a volunteer organization, it is this contribution of time and passion for the beef cattle industry that moves BIF forward.

Elmore has been involved in the purebred and commercial cattle industry her entire life. In 2001, she began her career with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System as the Alabama Beef Cattle Improvement Association (BCIA) coordinator and extension animal scientist. Through her determination and hard work, Alabama BCIA has remained a vital part of Alabama beef cattle production. She is the voice and face of Alabama BCIA and serves as coordinator and primary contact for Alabama BCIA sales, events and programs.

Currently, Elmore directly organizes two bull sales and three BCIA Genetic Verified replacement heifer sales each year. She is the editor of the quarterly BCIA newsletter. She also is directly responsible for a seedstock education series that serves to teach seedstock producers how to use emerging genetic and reproductive technologies in their herds, and to properly record and utilize performance records.

Elmore has been instrumental in teaching commercial producers the importance of performance recordkeeping. She has transitioned Alabama BCIA from utilizing a university-based program to an individual computer program to an online recordkeeping system during her 16 years of service. She annually assists producers in processing cattle records and consults with commercial producers through the BCIA commercial recordkeeping program. To date, Alabama BCIA has performance records on more than 148,000 calves and 122,000 dams dating back to the 1980s.

Elmore provides educational instruction in the areas of cattle reproduction, cattle recordkeeping and BCIA performance program opportunities, and she represents the Alabama BCIA throughout the state for industry trade shows.

Elmore was the 2010 recipient of the Alabama BCIA Outstanding Extension Educator Award and the Alabama Association of County Agricultural Agents and Specialists top communication awards winner for the Alabama BCIA Newsletter.

Her service to BIF includes the preparation of numerous seedstock and commercial producer award nominations from Alabama BCIA each year. She has given an invited talk in the Producer Applications committee session at BIF and helped moderate a breakout session, as well. She is a regular attendee of BIF conventions and usually brings a large contingent from Alabama with her to the meetings.

A native of Shuqualak, Miss., she was raised on a Brangus seedstock and commercial operation and represents the eighth generation of her family’s agriculture business. Elmore currently lives in Clanton, Alabama, with her husband, Josh, and children Gentry and Emma.

More than 350 beef producers, academia and industry representatives were in attendance at the 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.

 

Cutline:
Michelle Elmore (center), Canton, Alabama, was presented a BIF Continuing Service Award. Also pictured are Marty Ropp, 2016-17 BIF President; and Jane Parish, BIF Executive Director. Elmore was honored June 2 at the organization’s 49th annual convention in Athens, Georgia.