The PrecisionAg Institute was celebrating a decade of the PrecisionAg Awards of Excellence at this year’s InfoAg Conference in St. Louis. The winners each year have devoted their careers to the technology that improves crop production stewardship, agronomy, and efficiency and this year was no different.

The 2016 Educator/Researcher of the Year is Dr. Brian Arnall, Associate Professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Science at Oklahoma State University. His program focuses on implementing precision ag technologies and nutrient management with emphasis on site-specific techniques.

The 2016 Legacy Award was presented posthumously to Dr. Marvin Stone who was a Regents Professor at Oklahoma State University (OSU) for 24 years, lecturing in the Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering department. During his time at OSU, he authored nearly 100 papers, received millions of dollars in grants, and taught legions of young, aspiring engineers while mentoring and advising dozens of graduate students across multiple disciplines. Tragically, Marvin and his wife Bonnie died on October 24 last year after being struck by an automobile following the OSU Homecoming Parade.

The 2016 PrecisionAg Farmer of the Year is Craige Mackenzie, a dairy and crop farmer from Methven, New Zealand. In 2010, Craige and daughter, Jemma, established Agri-Optics Ltd., New Zealand’s first precision agriculture service company providing precision ag tools and services to NZ farming systems with a focus on field sensing (crop sensing and Electro Magnetic soil surveying) and spatial data management solutions.

The Crop Adviser/Entrepreneur of the Year award went to Ag Partners, LLC which provides products, services and market access in the areas of grain, agronomy, feed, and petroleum. The Iowa-based company has developed and manages InSiteCDM, acrop data management program that helps producers maximize profits and make more efficient inputs.

2016 ICPA/InfoAg Photo Album