Three Garner Recognition
from West Texas Agricultural Chemicals Institute

Writer: Tim W. McAlavy, (806) 746-6101, t-mcalavy@tamu.edu

LUBBOCK – Three people with a long record of service to Texas agriculture were honored here today
 by the West Texas Agricultural Chemicals Institute (WTACI) at the institute’s 50th annual educational conference.

The institute is a consortium of educators, producers, chemical dealers, consultants, and agribusiness
representatives and leaders who work together to promote environmentally sound use of ag chemicals in high-yield
production agriculture.

The organization bestowed its institutional award on Randy Boman, cotton agronomist with Texas Cooperative
Extension and Texas A&M University associate professor of agronomy. A native of southwest Oklahoma, Boman
has more than 20 years experience as an agronomist and researcher with Oklahoma State University, the Noble
Foundation and Texas A&M.

As the Extension cotton agronomist on the Texas High Plains, Boman provides leadership for educational
programs and applied research in agronomy that affects and positively influences production systems and the
profitability of producers and agribusinesses. He also serves tirelessly as a mentor in training Extension agents,
agribusiness representatives, growers and crop consultants; and regularly shares his vast knowledge of cotton
production with local, state, national and international audiences each year.

The institute presented its commercial award to Jay Garretson. He is a former crop protection specialist, vice
president of Garretson Farm Supply, and president of the WTACI. He also is the current president of Frontier
Fertilizer.

During his tenure with WTACI, Garretson helped secure a $50,000 scholarship endowment for Texas Tech
University, and helped the institute broaden its own scholarship program to include graduate students and students
attending universities not in West Texas. He was also instrumental in gaining continuing education credits for
conference participants, and organizing the first concurrent educational sessions at the yearly conference.

Joe Bryant, Branson, MO, received the institute’s prestigious special recognition award for “many years of
dedicated service in promoting and serving West Texas Agriculture.” A Tennessean, Bryant was Texas A&M’s
Extension communications specialist serving Lubbock, Amarillo and Vernon from 1977 to 1998.

He served WTACI as media advisor for more than seven years, and worked as a reporter, columnist, editor, bureau
chief, and director of news services with United Press, several daily newspapers and Virginia Polytechnic Institute
before beginning his academic career.

He is a veteran of the Korean conflict, a retired Texas A&M and Texas Tech professor of ag communications, and
now works as a freelance magazine writer from his home in Branson, MO.

More than 350 growers, educators, consultants and agribusiness representatives attended this year’s conference –
which featured presentations on agricultural research, food safety, farm policy and water conservation. Workshops
focusing on plant disease, insect management, biotechnology, precision agriculture and weed control capped off the
day-long event.

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