I hope you enjoyed this beautiful weekend, and maybe some of you took in the final days of the great Iowa State Fair! I was there last Thursday for my annual rounds, visiting with organizations, friends, partners and alums of the college that all gather each year for this terrific tradition. We made it to the following, and at each stop had great conversations:
Century and Heritage Farm event (see picture below)
Dairy Science Club display
Iowa Cattleman’s Association
Iowa Egg Industry Council
Iowa Farm Bureau
State FFA
State 4-H
Iowa Turkey Federation
Iowa Department of Natural Resources
Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship
Iowa Pork Tent
Cattlemen’s Beef Quarters, and of course
the Iowa State booth in the Varied Industries Building!
The agricultural heart of the fair is so evident, and the many links to our college are everywhere.
Last week, I held a planning and thinking retreat with the college administration team, and this week will do the same with the CALS department chairs. I know many of you are in “retreat” season, too, at the department, center and unit levels. These activities are called retreats because the idea is you move away from the frontlines of your everyday work and take a breather to imagine what’s next – but I always think they should be called “advances” because the goal is to imagine new ways to advance toward the future.
Move-in for new-to-Iowa State students begins tomorrow (Aug. 20), so be careful as you're driving around campus, especially near the residence halls.
One week until classes! My best - Dan
Scenes from CALS
In the livestock pavilion at the Iowa State Fair during the Century and Heritage Farm Awards event, I had a terrific chance to catch up with all kinds of CALS partners, friends and alums, including in this photo (left to right): Grant Menke, deputy secretary of agriculture, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship; Jason Henderson, Iowa State vice president of extension and outreach; Alison Parker, CALS executive assistant to the dean; Mary Ann Fox, junior in agricultural systems technology and 2023 Iowa State Fair Queen; Elli Blackford, incoming freshman in animal science and 2024 Iowa State Fair Queen; Kendall Lamkey, CALS associate dean for facilities and operations; Jason Keith, Iowa State provost; and myself.Carmen Bain, associate dean for academic innovation; Shelby Gruss, Andy Vanloocke, Mary Wiedenhoeft, agronomy; Ajay Nair, Suzanne Slack, horticulture; and Matt O'Neal, plant pathology, entomology and microbiology, hosted a group of 13 New Zealand farmers and Pioneer seed dealers last week. One of their stops included the Alliant Energy Solar Farm at Iowa State University, where O'Neal talked about the efforts to create a pollinator habitat under the panels by growing various fruits and vegetables.Mike Rentz, associate teaching professor in natural resource ecology and management, right, taught Animal Ecology 372: Wildlife Population Methods this summer at the French Camp in Montana. While most of the class took place at the camp, the class took a trip to Glacier National Park where they participated in a research project on pika. Over three days, they hiked more than 30 miles to backcountry talus slopes to collect pika scat for genetic analysis.A fun picture - no caption needed!
