PULLMAN, Wash. — David Bragg, Washington State University Garfield County Cooperative Extension educator, has been named the 13th recipient of the Kenneth J. Morrison Award in Agronomy and Soils.
The award recognizes WSU extension faculty for significant contributions to agronomic crop production and soil management.
“He is essentially our eastside extension entomologist,” said John Brown, chair of WSU’s entomology department. “We’ve sent him questions that have come to us from people in Deer Park, west to the Tri-Cities and south to the Oregon border. We really appreciate his help.” Brown nominated Bragg for the award.
Bragg, who has a doctorate in entomology from the University of California at Davis, is an affiliate professor of WSU’s entomology department.
Bragg came to WSU in 1981 and has served as chair of the Garfield County Extension office ever since.
His field trials at the USDA-WSU research station at Central Ferry have led to registration and use of seed treatments that protect cereal crops from aphids and Hessian flies. His recommendations for managing the bird cherry oat aphid, which carries the cereal disease barley yellow dwarf virus, translated into an economic savings of $225,000 for southeast Washington growers during the 1999-2000 crop year.
“While I am honored to receive this award,” Bragg said, “I want to point out that almost everything I do nowadays is as a member of a team of extension faculty who work in southeast Washington. While John Burns (Whitman County) and I are county chairs and Randy Baldree is interim chair in Asotin County, our hearts are together in real extension teamwork in all three counties.”
The award was presented (Thursday, June 29) at the combined field day of WSU’s Spillman Agronomy Farm and the USDA-Agricultural Research Service-WSU Palouse Conservation Field Station. Bragg received a plaque and a check for $400.
The award honors the memory of Kenneth J. Morrison, who served as WSU Cooperative Extension agronomist from 1950 to 1987.
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