Farm Progress

Members of Iowa Ag Extension Association are recognized for outstanding communication efforts.

Rod Swoboda 1, Editor, Wallaces Farmer

April 11, 2018

2 Min Read
CONGRATS: IAEA winners for 2018 are (from left) Nathan Crane, Fred Hall, Kapil Arora, Lisa Scarbrough, Ron Lenth and Jennifer Bentley.

As they do every year in early April, members of the Iowa Agricultural Extension Association came to Ames for their spring meeting at Iowa State University. They attended training and information sessions to learn what’s new in their area of expertise.

On one of the evenings, the membership business meeting is held, and winners of the IAEA annual communications awards are announced.

Wallaces Farmer magazine is a longtime sponsor of the annual communications awards presented by IAEA. The recognition goes to IAEA members who submit entries of their work in various categories. The state winners receive a cash award, and their entries are then advanced to regional competition sponsored by the National Association of County Agricultural Agents.

Entries in various categories
This year’s contest had 13 total entries from Iowa members. The state winners for 2018 are Fred Hall, website category; Kapil Arora, published photo, promotional article, feature story and publication; Lisa Scarbrough, newsletter by team; Ron Lenth, newsletter by individual; and Jennifer Bentley, video recording and fact sheet.

What’s the role of these 2018 winners in ISU Extension? Nathan Crane is ISU regional Extension director for four counties, based at Oskaloosa in the Mahaska County Extension office. As chairman of the IAEA communications committee, he congratulated the 2018 contest winners for their efforts to “effectively deliver objective, research-based information to the public.”

Hall is an ISU Extension dairy specialist in northwest Iowa. Arora is an ISU Extension ag engineer located at Winterset. Scarbrough is an ISU Extension communications specialist at Ames working with ISU programs, including Annie’s Project, Value Added Agriculture and Women in Agriculture. Lenth is the Bremer County Extension coordinator at Waverly. Bentley is an ISU Extension dairy specialist in northeast Iowa.

John Lawrence, who has served ISU Extension for many years as director of Ag and Natural Resources Extension efforts, and as associate dean of ISU’s College of Agriculture, addressed the annual IAEA meeting. Lawrence was recently named vice president of ISU Extension, as he completed one year as interim vice president. Jay Harmon, an ISU professor of ag engineering and an ISU Extension livestock facilities specialist, also spoke to the members. Harmon is serving as interim director for Ag and Natural Resources Extension and Outreach at ISU.

About the Author(s)

Rod Swoboda 1

Editor, Wallaces Farmer

Rod, who has been a member of the editorial staff of Wallaces Farmer magazine since 1976, was appointed editor of the magazine in April 2003. He is widely recognized around the state, especially for his articles on crop production and soil conservation topics, and has won several writing awards, in addition to honors from farm, commodity and conservation organizations.

"As only the tenth person to hold the position of Wallaces Farmer editor in the past 100 years, I take seriously my responsibility to provide readers with timely articles useful to them in their farming operations," Rod says.

Raised on a farm that is still owned and operated by his family, Rod enjoys writing and interviewing farmers and others involved in agriculture, as well as planning and editing the magazine. You can also find Rod at other Farm Progress Company activities where he has responsibilities associated with the magazine, including hosting the Farm Progress Show, Farm Progress Hay Expo and the Iowa Master Farmer program.

A University of Illinois grad with a Bachelors of Science degree in agriculture (ag journalism major), Rod joined Wallaces Farmer after working several years in Washington D.C. as a writer for Farm Business Incorporated.

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