News release issued January 2, 2001, effective immediately.
For media inquiries, contact Caroline Booth Lara, Communications Specialist, (580) 224-6379.
  email: cblara@noble.org

Retirees Reflect on Agricultural Changes

ARDMORE, Okla. – The world of agriculture was considerably different in 1964 when friends R.L. Dalrymple and Charles Griffith joined the Noble Foundation's Agricultural Division staff with brand-spankin’ new master’s degrees in their pockets.

Dalrymple and Griffith would spend the next 36 years as forage specialists, helping area farmers and ranchers through farm visits, one-on-one consultations, publications and presentations.

The story is much the same for soil fertility specialist Jerry Rogers, who joined the Noble Foundation Agricultural Division staff five years later. Wayne Dobbs, who joined the Foundation in 1966 and managed the Pasture Demonstration Farm northwest of Ardmore, has likewise lived and worked through more than three decades of agricultural progress and change.

Dalrymple, Griffith, Rogers and Dobbs – with almost 140 years of Noble Foundation expertise under their belts – retired last week from the Foundation, as did Larry Taliaferro, farm manager of the Foundation's Red River Research and Demonstration Farm near Burneyville, who joined the Ag Division in 1995.

"I have mixed feelings about announcing these retirements," Noble Foundation President Michael A. Cawley said. "On the one hand, I have a sense of sadness and reluctance because the Ag Division and the Foundation will be losing some of its top people – people who have pursued their work with diligence and vigor and, in the course thereof, have provided great benefit to individual cooperators, agriculture in general and to the Foundation’s reputation for quality and excellence.

"On the other hand, I also have a sense of positive expectation," Cawley added. "First, these retirees will be able to enjoy a well-deserved retirement which will afford them opportunities to pursue activities that heretofore they have only been able to dream about. Second, the considerable gaps left by these retirements will afford other quality people within the Agricultural Division opportunities to pursue additional responsibilities. I see many positives. I also have a real sense of appreciation for the many and significant contributions that this group of retirees has made. I wish them much happiness."

Recently, the three ag specialists enthusiastically looked back with pride on their 103 combined years at the Foundation.

R.L. Dalrymple
Dalrymple points out with pride that he and the other retirees are "the last of a very minimal number of people" in the country whose ancestry is almost exclusively farmers or ranchers. "My Grandpa Dalrymple pioneered in Oklahoma and actually came to Oklahoma in a covered wagon," he explained.

Dalrymple has done some pioneering as well since arriving at the Noble Foundation, primarily in such areas as rotational grazing, weeping lovegrass, Old World Bluestem, and crabgrass studies.

Hired to complete a new, second, three-man consultation team, he was soon participating in rotational grazing demonstrations started by earlier agriculturists at the Foundation. Current practices in that area "are enormously different" from what was being done in the mid-1960s, Dalrymple said. Now rotational grazing involves more than just the pasture – it includes animal behavior, financial management, nutritional value, people interaction, and more.

"Now there are also people considerations and environmental considerations," Dalrymple said. "That’s all come about in the past twenty years. There was nothing like that taught when I was in school. Now, one of the primary considerations is what I call the ‘people factor.’"

That includes a growing interest in a better quality of agricultural life, doing things better but easier as well, and sustainable production methods.

Dalrymple won’t be leaving the Foundation work entirely for a while, though. On his own time, he will complete some producer-oriented publications already under way, has committed to doing "numerous" presentations over the next year, and will continue to do so for as long as he’s asked. He also plans to stay active in several organizations, be available for consultation work, devote more time to family, and work toward making his family farm near Thomas, Okla., more productive.

"I have greatly enjoyed my employment," Dalrymple said. "I have been allowed to do things for producers that I would not have been able to do at any other agricultural institution anywhere in the nation."

Dalrymple also believes that the Ag Division’s reorganization will be a plus for full-time producers.

"I think the full-time cooperators can benefit from the refined approach as time goes on," he said. "They will be in a position to have more time involvement from the consultation teams.

"What I’m probably going to miss the most is the interaction with the Ag Division family," Dalrymple added. "Following close behind will be the personal interaction with the cooperators, the real people we work for."

Charles Griffith
Charles Griffith joined the Foundation the same day as his college friend, R.L. Dalrymple – Feb. 3, 1964.

"When I started work here in ’64, basically, we had to build our clientele base. Farmers and ranchers did not know that much about the Noble Foundation. They were used to getting their information from the Extension service and soil conservation service and other government agencies.

"We had to build up the confidence and public trust from people to work with them," Griffith recalled.

Back then the two teams consisted of a livestock specialist, soils specialist, and a crops and pasture specialist. Since then, economists, wildlife specialists and horticulturists have been added, and the number of teams has doubled.

There have been some major changes in agriculture as well since then, Griffith said – especially in economics. The wealth in agriculture at the producer level has declined over the years. There have been three major periods during which farmers and ranchers suffered a great loss – the early ’70s, mid ’80s, and mid ’90s – because of low prices, the weather, or both. That was especially drilled home when cattle prices dropped in the ’70s, and even more in the ’80s.

"We saw a lot of producers have to go out of business," Griffith said, in part because of producers’ purchasing land at inflated prices, input cost skyrocketing by up to 300 percent, and agricultural prices dropping steeply afterward.

"That taught me that producers have to look at other ways to remain sustainable on the farm," Griffith said.

Another eye-opener came in 1985, he said, when he gained a newfound appreciation for how nature itself can take care of the land.

"Our work at Coffey Ranch has taught us a lot in working with nature and managing land resources," Griffith said. He started basing his recommendations on ecological soundness and environmentally friendly practices and now is a major supporter of holistic management techniques and sustainable agricultural procedures.

Griffith also said he’ll miss the interaction with cooperators with whom he’s built relationships through the year, as well as the fellowship among his fellow Agricultural Division workers. He is currently setting up a consultation business focusing on sustainable agriculture.

"I love what I’m doing and what I’ve done," he said. "I have no regrets in my work here with the Noble Foundation. I’m very thankful that Lloyd Noble had a love for the land and people on the land and was willing to share his wealth with agriculture."

Jerry Rogers
Jerry Rogers came to the Noble Foundation on June 5, 1969, fresh out of college. He said it took him a little while to get acclimated in his position as soil fertility specialist – "Much of my undergraduate schooling was how to kill grass in row crops. Here in Ardmore, we were trying to grow grass, not kill it."

His master’s thesis on weeping lovegrass had made him familiar with Dalrymple, but he had no idea where Ardmore was when he began looking into a job here.

He joined Dalrymple and former employee Charlie Richards on a team, enabling Dalrymple to focus more on forage work.

The following year, he started doing field plot research and has always had something going since. He, fellow Foundation specialist Wadell Altom, and Oklahoma State University agronomists started in 1974 what has become the longest-running research project at Noble, dealing with long-term rye-wheat-ryegrass forage yield affected by nitrogen application.

Rogers said the group met recently to discuss including information collected since 1992 and creating a second publication of findings.

"It’s management into the future," Rogers said of the project. "The discipline wishes to continue the project. There is information still to be gained, information that has yet to be mined out from the project."

The soil fertility and crops discipline and Altom will continue overseeing the project.

When Rogers came to the Foundation, there were 65 employees, compared with more than 200 now, and still growing.

"When I first came, you got to know everyone in the division well, and most of the other Noble employees as well," Rogers said. "You shared the good and the bad times together."

Ag specialists also shouldered more of the physical workload as well, he recalls. Now there are ag research assistants to help with the "grunt" work, but back then, the specialists themselves planted and maintained their research plots, drove tractors, worked cattle, built corrals, and personally oversaw building projects, around making farm visits.

Staff repositioning and other changes in the Ag Division have occurred recently, and Rogers sees good coming from those changes.

"I think we have the potential to get back to a newer, higher level of efficient cooperator consultation here at the Foundation," Rogers said.

While the Ag Division is meeting that "newer, higher level," Rogers plans to be busy on his own – with fishing, landscaping, and remodeling his house. As he calls it, "putting in the sweat equity."

He had no hesitation in stating what he’ll miss most after retiring.

"My fellow workers; it’s a family," he said. "This is my family. When I moved out here, I was five hundred miles from any of my family, so I grew up with them."

He said he’ll also miss the farm visits with cooperators, but plans on developing a number of new acquaintances through the next few years – at church, in the neighborhood, and even while fishing.

Wayne Dobbs
The Noble Foundation's Pasture Demonstration Farm (PDF) has hosted hundreds of tours and thousands of visitors during the last three decades. And Dobbs was around almost every time to make sure the farm was running smoothly and tours went off without a hitch.

"To me the highlight out at PDF was the 30^th anniversary. That was a big deal," Dobbs said.

In the beginning Dobbs took care of the cattle operations at both the Headquarters Farm and PDF and managed plots at the latter as well. He also coordinated the Foundation's bull test for 13 years. "I covered quite a bit of ground there for a while," he added.

His responsibilities shifted exclusively to PDF in the early 1990s when Russ Gentry was hired to manage the Headquarters operations.

"I've been well pleased working out there," Dobbs said. "I also enjoyed working with people at the Foundation and cooperators on field days at PDF."

His plans include concentrating on his own ranch and family activities, including his wife's crafts.

"I'm not going to just sit down and do nothing," Dobbs said. "I just can't do that."

Larry Taliaferro
Taliferro's career with the Foundation – and his association with the Red River Farm – is a mosaic of twists and turns dating back more than 30 years.

He went to work on the farm in 1969, before the Foundation purchased the sprawling farm near Burneyville. He managed the facility for three years after the Foundation purchased the place in 1973.

Taliaferro was later hired as a contractor to manage the pecan operations at Red River, which he did for approximately 18 years. He was hired as an employee in 1995.

"I've seen a lot of change out there, and it's all been for the better," Taliaferro said. "The highlight was the thinning of the north pecan orchard, where we removed every other row of trees. That let the remaining trees spread out better with fewer disease problems."

Taliaferro has seen good and bad pecan years on the farm. Production varied from a low of 20,000 pounds to a high of 436,000 pounds in the mid 1980s. Drought and spring freezes were among the factors that hurt production in the lean years, he said.

His plans include raising peanuts and pecans, fixing fences, the "honey-do" projects around the house, and "two or three trips to Branson" each year.

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Photos: R.L. Dalrymple | Charles Griffith | Jerry Rogers | Wayne Dobbs | Larry Taliaferro

The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, headquartered in Ardmore, Okla., is a non-profit organization conducting agricultural, forage biotechnological, and plant biology research; providing grants to numerous non-profit charitable, educational and health organizations; and assisting farmers and ranchers through educational and consultative agricultural programs.

To learn more, check out the Noble Foundation Web site at http://www.noble.org.

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