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McKnight named University Extension Cotton Specialist of the YearMcKnight named University Extension Cotton Specialist of the Year

Ben McKnight receives award for being the outstanding Extension Cotton specialist in 2025.

Brent Murphree, Senior Editor

January 17, 2025

2 Min Read
McKnight, Camp, Morgan
Ben McKnight, left, receives the University Extension Cotton Specialist of the Year Award from previous winners, Camp Hand, center, and Gaylon Morgan. Brent Murphree

Ben McKnight, of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service has been recognized as the 2025 University Extension Cotton Specialist of the Year. The announcement was made at the Beltwide Cotton Conference on January 15 in New Orleans, La., during a special reception and dinner.

The award, which is presented annually is recognition of exceptional service, dedication and leadership while developing and conduction education programs and assistance to the U.S. Cotton industry.

McKnight joined the Texas A&M University Department of Soil and Crop Sciences in 2020 as the statewide cotton specialist. He came to the position after earning his Ph.D. at Louisiana State University. Prior to that he worked for both Texas A&M AgriLife Research and AgriLife Extension while earning his degrees there.

Gaylon Morgan, Director of Agronomy and Weed Control at Cotton Incorporated presented the award along with Camp Hand, University of Georgia cotton agronomist and associate professor, Tifton, Ga.

“His major professors said he was an amazing workhorse that could walk on post flooded rice fields in 100-degree weather like nothing at all,” said Morgan “He never complained a bit. He’s really humble, really smart.

“He just gets the job done.”

McKnight accepted the award while acknowledging the people he works with.

Related:Camp Hand receives Extension cotton specialist award

“It's pretty awesome to be the recipient of this award - to be recognized by your peers like this,” he said, “But you know, there's a lot of outstanding people I work with on a day-to-day basis. When you have that, when you're surrounded by fantastic people that work hard, it makes your job a lot smoother.”

David Baltensberger, professor and department head in the Soil and Crop Sciences Department at Texas A&M, said that McKnight is timely, focused, efficient, effective and does what he says he will, when he says he will.

“We really appreciate what he's done for Cotton in Texas, what he's done for the profession, what he continues, and what we expect him to do in the future. Congratulations.” said Baltensberger.

Tim Dabbert, cotton technical product and strategy lead for Bayer, sponsored the award. He noted that this award is an important tradition that Bayer is happy to sponsor in appreciation of the leadership in education provided by all the University Extension Cotton Specialists throughout the year.

About the Author

Brent Murphree

Senior Editor, Delta Farm Press

Brent Murphree grew up on a third-generation Arizona cotton farm and has been in ag communications for well over 25 years. He received his journalism degree from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. He was a partner in the family farm, which grew cotton, wheat, alfalfa and pistachios. Urban encroachment in the fast-growing Phoenix metropolitan area was the impetus for closing the farm operation.

He received two Arizona Newspaper Association awards while at Kramer Communications in Casa Grande, Ariz., and was editor of their Pinal Ways magazine. He has served as a municipal public information officer and has worked as a communications director for the cotton industry, writing for industry publications. He was vice mayor of the town of Maricopa, which he helped incorporate, for seven years, having established and organized several community organizations in the process. His small hometown has grown from several hundred people to over 60,000 in just over 20 years.

Brent joined Farm Press in 2019 as content director for Southwest Farm Press and Western Farm Press. He became editor of Delta Farm Press in October of 2020.

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