Michigan hort society honors Dave Smeltzer and Vance Baird – Good Fruit Grower

The Michigan State Horticultural Society offered two Distinguished Service Awards throughout the 2024 Nice Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm Market EXPO banquet on Dec. 11. The awards got to fruit grower David Smeltzer and Michigan State College Division of Horticulture Chairperson William Vance Baird. David C. SmeltzerDave Smeltzer Smeltzer’s great-great-grandfather established a fruit farm in Northwest Michigan within the Eighties, and the Smeltzer household has continued the fruit-growing custom for greater than a century.Smeltzer labored summers on the household farm and joined the operation as a companion in 1979, after graduating from Alma School. By 1991, he and his spouse settled in Onekama Township, the place he served 17 years on the township planning fee. Smeltzer presently serves as chair of the Michigan Cherry Committee. He has additionally served on the boards of the horticultural society, the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Analysis Basis, the Benzie Manistee Horticultural Society, the Benzie-Manistee County Farm Bureau, the Manistee Brownfield Redevelopment Authority and the Manistee Conservation District.Smeltzer has been energetic in native faculty and sports activities actions for years, is concerned in a neighborhood jail ministry and helps arrange and host group occasions. In 2019, his farm hosted Michigan’s Progressive Agriculture Security Day, welcoming greater than 300 college students and 100 volunteers to advertise farm security and rural well being. One in all Smeltzer’s factors of satisfaction is working with a devoted group. Two longtime staff devoted greater than 40 years to his farm. Their contributions are a testomony to the deep bonds shaped throughout the agricultural business, he mentioned. William Vance BairdWilliam Vance BairdBaird joined MSU’s Division of Horticulture as chairperson in 2009. He got here from Clemson College, the place he served on the college for 20 years. His scientific experience is within the areas of plant response to environmental stress, gene expression, genome construction and performance in tree fruit and the results of herbicides in weed and crop improvement. He earned a doctorate in biology from the College of Virginia in 1983. As hort division chair, Baird works with Michigan’s specialty crop industries to foster helpful relationships between MSU college members and business stakeholders. He advocates for college and extension personnel to combine utilized analysis with outreach duties. Baird has been a member of the Michigan State Horticultural Society board since 2009 and works to take care of connections between MSU and Michigan’s fruit business. Baird additionally performs different roles at MSU. He serves on the directorate of the MSU Institute of Agricultural Expertise and, for greater than a decade, he has reviewed proposals for MSU’s Venture GREEEN. He’s additionally director of MSU’s Plant Biotechnology Useful resource and Outreach Heart. The American Society for Horticultural Science just lately gave Baird its Excellent Management and Administration Award, and the Michigan Vegetable Council offered Baird its 2024 Grasp Farmer Award throughout the Nice Lakes EXPO banquet. —by Matt Milkovich



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