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Oklahoma hires state Extension cotton specialist

Jenny Dudak has accepted Oklahoma State University's new state Extension cotton specialist position. She will assume her role in May following graduation with her doctorate in crop science and an emphasis in weed science.

Shelley E. Huguley, Editor

January 5, 2024

1 Min Read
Jenny Dudak
Jenny Dudak, Oklahoma State University crop science doctoral candidate, is hired to be Oklahoma's new state Extension cotton specialist. Shelley E. Huguley

Oklahoma producers will have a new state Extension cotton specialist after crop science doctoral candidate Jenny Dudak walks the stage at Oklahoma State University in May.

Dudak, who's been working under OSU Extension Weed Scientist Todd Baughman, looks forward to meeting producers and helping them resolve production issues.

"Jenny has been an excellent member of our weed science program and will be a tremendous cotton specialist. Jenny has lived and breathed cotton ever since she arrived in Oklahoma," Baughman said. "She has led our program's research efforts on evaluating the new Axant Flex cotton technology. I believe the Oklahoma cotton industry and Oklahoma State University hired a superstar."

Farm Press caught up with Dudak at the 2024 Beltwide Cotton Conferences in Fort Worth, Texas. Watch this video to learn more about Dudack and what she hopes to accomplish on behalf of Oklahoma producers.

About the Author(s)

Shelley E. Huguley

Editor, Southwest Farm Press

Shelley Huguley has been involved in agriculture for the last 25 years. She began her career in agricultural communications at the Texas Forest Service West Texas Nursery in Lubbock, where she developed and produced the Windbreak Quarterly, a newspaper about windbreak trees and their benefit to wildlife, production agriculture and livestock operations. While with the Forest Service she also served as an information officer and team leader on fires during the 1998 fire season and later produced the Firebrands newsletter that was distributed quarterly throughout Texas to Volunteer Fire Departments. Her most personal involvement in agriculture also came in 1998, when she married the love of her life and cotton farmer Preston Huguley of Olton, Texas. As a farmwife, she knows first-hand the ups and downs of farming, the endless decisions made each season based on “if” it rains, “if” the drought continues, “if” the market holds. She is the bookkeeper for their family farming operation and cherishes moments on the farm such as taking harvest meals to the field or starting a sprinkler in the summer with the whole family lending a hand. Shelley has also freelanced for agricultural companies such as Olton CO-OP Gin, producing the newsletter Cotton Connections while also designing marketing materials to promote the gin. She has published articles in agricultural publications such as Southwest Farm Press while also volunteering her marketing and writing skills to non-profit organizations such as Refuge Services, an equine-assisted therapy group in Lubbock. She and her husband reside in Olton with their three children Breely, Brennon and HalleeKate.

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