Six Selected for Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame is slated to add six new members to its ranks this year. Inductees include the late Dr. George Berger, who served as dean of the Arkansas State University College of Agriculture from 1971-1981 and founded the Eagle Seed business in his hometown of Weiner; Dr. Fred Bourland of Blytheville, a cotton breeder who created more than 100 improved cotton varieties adapted to Arkansas; Dr. Mark Cochran of Fayetteville, retired vice president of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture; the late Melvin Daniel of Hot Springs, a long-time ag education instructor and FFA advisor; Dr. Charles Looney, a nationally recognized cattle geneticist who serves at the UA Southwest Experiment Station in Hope; and Gary Sitzer of Weiner, a fourth-generation rice and soybean farmer who has been highly involved in research and policy work in support of Arkansas agriculture.

A native of Bismarck, Melvin Daniel spent 37 years as an agriculture education teacher in Glenwood, Lake Hamilton and Foreman School districts, with 33 of those spent at Lake Hamilton, he helped produce Lake Hamilton’s first FFA state officer, its first American Degree Recipient and trained 33 state-winning FFA judging teams. In his honor, Lake Hamilton has named its school farm The Melvin Daniel Lake Hamilton FFA Farm.

After retiring from teaching, Daniel worked six years as the director of the Master Gardeners program with the Garland County Cooperative Extension Service. He also had a strong passion for raising Black Angus/Limousine cattle and spent a large amount of his time building up a quality herd.

As a result of Melvin’s lifelong commitment to agriculture, he was awarded the Honorary Chapter FFA Degree, Honorary State FFA Degree and even the highest honor a non-FFA member can receive: The Honorary American FFA Degree. He was also named a County Agent of the Year and was recently inducted into the Legendary Owl Hall of Fame, which honors those who strongly and positively impact the future of Agriculture in Arkansas.

Daniel passed away Aug. 23, 2023.

Cattle have been a large part of Charles Looney’s life since he was a young boy in Camden. He is recognized internationally as an expert in cattle genetics and reproductive technologies. He spent 35 years in the industry in Texas before returning to his home state in 2018 as professor of cattle genetic improvement for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. His expertise centers on embryo transfer, in-vitro fertilization, tissue banking for cloning, timed breeding and on-the-farm use of these technologies to improve beef cattle genetics.

Looney, an Arkansas native with graduate degrees from the University of Arkansas and Louisiana State University, founded two cattle genetics companies in Texas, namely OvaGenix and Ultimate Genetics, after serving as a scientist and consultant in the field for several years. While he was working for Granada Biosciences, he was part of the team that produced the first embryo-derived bovine clones. His work at Ultimate Genetics included the world’s first transgenic cloned calves and the first cloned bull.

He has worked with cattlemen across the United States as well as Panama, Argentina, Australia, France, Great Britain, Mexico, India, Brazil and Columbia.

Looney earned the President’s Award for Outstanding Service from the American Embryo Transfer Association in 2019 and an Award of Distinction from the University of Arkansas in 2014. The Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association presented him with its Producer Education Award in 2022.