Endres honored at NACAA annual meeting

Gregory Endres, North Dakota State University Cropping Systems Specialist, has been awarded the National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA) Hall of Fame Award.

The Hall of Fame Award was presented at the 109th Annual Meeting and Professional Improvement Conference held in Dallas, Texas, July 14-18, 2024.

This prestigious award recognizes Extension Educators or Agents for a lifetime of exemplary work where they have demonstrated commitment, dedication, and effective leadership in job performance as an outstanding educator. There is also consideration for involvement with NACAA at both the state and national level, and outstanding humanitarian service outside of the applicant's normal Extension programming. NACAA confers one award annually in each of four regions of the nation for members with sustained and distinguished careers.

Greg has served NDSU Extension for 40 years, including the past 33 years as Cropping Systems Specialist, based at the Carrington Research Extension Center (CREC). In his current position, the priority audience is crop advisers, and specifically Extension county ag agents.

He serves North Dakota agents with a focused in-service program including annual spring agronomy updates, in-season crop Zoom calls, individual and group field days, individual consultation, presentations during winter meetings and summer tours, and including their involvement in field research and surveys.

Examples of Greg's programming for crop advisers and farmers include the CREC Crop Management Field School, Advanced Crop Advisers Workshop (ACAW), and Getting-it-Right (GIR) in Crop Production. He is co-chair of the ACAW (since 1993) conducted by NDSU and University of Minnesota Extension serving 150 to 175 persons per workshop (over 5000 during past 30 years) through in-depth training of selected crop production issues.

Greg serves as co-chair of the GIR program initiated for soybean over a decade ago to provide NDSU production research updates and recommendations. Since 2020, the program expanded to dry bean, canola, flax, sunflower and corn, primarily delivered virtually (Zoom). The GIR program directly reaching over 2000 persons is another example of successful Extension programming through Greg's work in program planning, moderating, presenting and evaluation.

Greg's agronomy focus for educational programs and research during the past two decades has been row crops, primarily soybean and dry bean. His research and educational efforts corresponded with the growth of soybean acres in North Dakota starting in the mid-1990's (less than 500,000 acres) and reaching the status of highest acreage crop (greater than 5 million acres) in the state in 2016.

Greg has annually devoted about 20% of his time to research. Taking a research idea from a stakeholder; planning and implementing field research; analyzing data; presenting to clientele during educational events; and publishing in research and Extension documents has been routinely achieved.

Greg has had a high and consistent productivity throughout his career. For example, between 2014 and 2022, he has delivered over 400 presentations to nearly 25,000 agricultural clients, delivered over 200 media outreach programs, published 28 Extension publications (14 as main author) and over 130 research reports, and directly consulted with an estimated 23,000 individuals. His work has been widely recognized with awards and honors that recognize excellence from NDSU and including NACAA.

Greg has been a member of the North Dakota Association of Agricultural Extension Agents (NDAAEA) since 1983. He has served NDAAEA in numerous leadership positions including as president, secretary and committee chairs. He has participated in numerous NACAA AM/PICs including poster and oral presentations, and received numerous communication awards.

In addition to his Extension career, Greg has been an active community volunteer, primarily in youth (e.g. 4-H and FFA) and faith programs.