Plain honored with Distinguished Service Award at 2023 Pork Forum

Mar 13, 2023

Ron Plain, professor emeritus and extension economist in Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Missouri- Columbia, was recognized as National Pork Board's Distinguished Service Award recipient at the 2023 Pork Forum.

Plain, who started his career as a high school agricultural education instructor, spent most of his professional career focused on helping producers understand the economic forces related to their pork production business.

His career in academia began just before the farm crisis and the major changes to the pork industry. During his 35 years as a professor and extension economist, Plain made more than 2,100 presentations to U.S. farm audiences and also traveled internationally, sharing his insight on how to manage pig farming as a business.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.