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Cadenhead retires after 30 years with AgriLife ExtensionTexas J.F. Cadenhead III joined Texas AgriLife Extension Service in 1980, and after 30 years of working with producers in the Panhandle, South Plains and Rolling Plains, he will retire on Jan. 31. Cadenhead is an assistant professor and AgriLife Extension range and brush control specialist serving these three regions, which encompass 66 counties. "There was never a time that I know of that J.F. didn't have the best intentions for the county agents that he worked with," said coworker Stan Bevers, AgriLife Extension economist at Vernon. "J.F. is one of the most unassuming gentlemen in the organization; he just does his job covering some of the biggest area in the state." A retirement party on his behalf will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 21 at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center near Vernon, 11708 Hwy. 70 South. Presentations will be made at 3 p.m. "J.F. is the epitome of what Extension and Extension specialists are all about," said Todd Baughman, coworker and AgriLife Extension agronomist at Vernon. "He has dedicated a career to helping farmers and ranchers make efficient and economical use of their land resources. "He has been very involved in ways to manage brush to maximize the dual use of rangeland for both the enhancement of livestock profitability while maintaining benefits to wildlife and the potential economic returns and aesthetic values those resources can provide to landowners also," Baughman said. Cadenhead said the biggest changes over the years he's been working have centered on the technology he used to do his job. "In the 1970s, we were using keypunch cards to type in separate pieces of data that were then run through an IBM 360 state-of-the-art computer," he said. "It was the size of the wall in a small room. I had over 10,000 individual punch cards of data back then. "When I started with the Extension Service in 1980, we all used a suitcase-sized Kaypro desktop computer with a tiny screen, maybe 8 to 9 inches in the diagonal. Now we carry our brain around in our shirt pocket as either a smart phone or memory jump stick." Cadenhead said advancements in global positioning systems and geographic information systems also have revolutionized the field of natural resource management. "We used to mark our fieldwork with compass coordinates and measure distances with the old handheld distance wheels," he said. "Also, when installing aerially applied herbicide test plots, we had to use flaggers (people) to mark the starting and ending of airplane swaths across a pasture. Nowadays, everything is done immediately and with almost 'smart-bomb' accuracies with GPS-equipped aircraft and/or individual hand-held units." Cadenhead earned a bachelor's degree in 1973 in biology from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene and his master's degree in 1975 in range science from Texas A&M University. He continued his studies in range management at New Mexico State University until he began his present duties with AgriLife Extension. Over the years, his educational programming has concentrated on rangeland brush and weed management, with extra emphasis on integrating mechanical, chemical and prescribed fire into a brush-management system. Recently, he has been concentrating his brush-management efforts on the repeated use of weed herbicides for continued range weed control with the extra benefit of constant brush suppression. "J.F. has dedicated many years to the county Extension agents and the agricultural producers in the North Region of Texas," said Galen Chandler, Ph.D., North Region program director for agriculture and natural resources and former district director in Vernon. "He is always very interested in helping agents and producers with result demonstration ideas, technical support and resources to test certain rangeland and brush products for their effectiveness," Chandler said. "J.F. has traveled many miles throughout the North Region to deliver high-quality educational programs, and he has always been very supportive of the agents and the programs they deliver," Chandler said. "He has always been a 'county agent's specialist.'" Cadenhead received a Vice Chancellor's Award of Excellence in recognition of outstanding contributions and performance in industry/agency/association partnership efforts for his work with the AgriPartners program. "It's been a good ride, although sometimes things moved so fast that you felt like you were just barely hanging in the saddle," Cadenhead said. "I've worked with a lot of good folks over my career, and I appreciate the opportunity afforded to me in this 'avocation' to have worked alongside each of them."
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