The Crave brothers of Waterloo, Lawrie Kull of Stillwater, Minn., Robert Rennebohm of Madison, and Robert Williams of Pardeeville will receive Honorary Recognition awards Oct. 27 from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The awards will be presented at a banquet in the Memorial Union on the UW-Madison campus.

Honorary Recognition, the highest honor bestowed by the College, recognizes people who have made outstanding contributions toward the development of agriculture, protection of natural resources, and improvement of rural living. Since 1909, the College has honored some 500 people with these awards.

Also at the banquet Larry Meiller, who recently retired as professor of life sciences communication and public radio host, will receive the Distinguished Service Award. The award is given annually to a CALS faculty or staff member for exceptionally meritorious contributions to the College, University and people of Wisconsin.

The banquet will be held Wednesday, Oct. 27 at the Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St. on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. A reception to meet past and current honorees begins at 5:30, with dinner at 6:30. Dinner selections are medallions of pork tenderloin ($22) and penne pasta with shiitake mushrooms, peppers and mornay sauce ($17). For reservations, please call CALS Conference Services, (608) 263-1672. Parking spaces ($3.50) are available in Lot 6 under Helen C. White Library on Park Street across from the Union, and at the Lake Street ramp.

Crave Brothers
Recent decades have been challenging ones for Wisconsin”s dairy farmers. The Crave brothers have met those challenges and thrived, and along the way they”ve generously shared their wisdom with other dairy farmers. For their efforts on behalf of the state”s dairy industry and their long-standing cooperation with CALS, Charles, George, Thomas and Mark Crave will receive the College”s Honorary Recognition Award for 2004.

Charles and George started farming in 1978 after graduating from the Farm and Industry Short Course, renting a farm near Mt. Horeb and buying 70 cows and young stock. Thomas, also a Short Course graduate, joined the partnership in 1980, and the brothers bought their current farm at Waterloo. Mark joined in 1989 after earning his BS degree at the College.

Over the years the brothers expanded to their current size of 668 Holstein cows and equal numbers of young stock. Feeding forages and homegrown grains, their rolling herd average is 29,279 pounds of milk, 1,003 pounds fat and 882 pounds protein; production per milking cow on test day in 2003 was 98.7 pounds of milk. The registered portion of their herd includes 6 EX, 45 VG and 36 GP cows and a breed average score of 107. They grow corn, soybeans and alfalfa on 1,400 owned and rented acres.

In 2002 the brothers began producing specialty cheeses, piping fresh milk directly from the milking parlor to the factory they built on their farm. Their award-winning Farmstead Classic cheeses include Les Freres (a washed-rind European style mountain cheese), classic Mascarpone and a full line of fresh Mozzarella.

The brothers have welcomed thousands of local, national and international visitors. The farm has hosted a variety of national and international groups, and for several years hosted the National 4-H Dairy Congress. A June Dairy Breakfast on the farm drew 2,000 visitors, and the brothers routinely share their experience with fellow producers at field days and twilight meetings. All four brothers serve on a variety of national and area dairy organizations and advisory committees, and all have traveled internationally to share their dairy expertise.

The Craves were honored as the first Dairy Farm Family of the Year by the UW Dairy Profitability Center in 1993, and they have been awarded second and fifth place in Best Managed Farms in the U.S., a national contest held by Farm Futures magazine. In 1996 the farm received the Outstanding Forage Award from the Wisconsin Forage Council.

The brothers have cooperated with many UW-Extension educators and College researchers, allowing their operation to be used as a real-life laboratory. Short Course international students have worked on the farm before classes start; current interns are from Guatemala and Romania, and recent interns have hailed from Northern Ireland, Colombia, Germany, Denmark, Brazil, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Poland and Uzbekistan.

“The Crave Brothers have been outstanding in the way of developing a modern dairy farm within the last 25 years. They started with almost nothing except their knowledge and willingness to work hard as well as the readiness to cooperate and to take advice,” wrote Gustav Wilke, who has visited the farm with more than 30 educational tours for dairy farmers, consultants, and veterinarians from Germany. “Besides their success in developing their own dairy farm the Crave Brothers have had great influence in the progress of international dairying. They were always willing to take the groups, to show them around, to explain their business and to answer all questions. Today many modern dairy farms in Germany have already realized ideas with they got from their visits at Crave Brothers or from reports about that farm in Waterloo, Wisconsin.”
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writer: rjc

Lawrie Kull
Lawrie Kull is the recipient of a 2004 Honorary Recognition Award from the University of Wisconsin-Madison”s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences for his work with dairy cooperatives and dairy producers throughout the state of Wisconsin.

Kull is described as a bridge builder by his colleagues, building bridges between dairy producers and the cooperatives they own, between Wisconsin agri-businesses and the UW-Madison, and between current and future dairy cooperative leaders.

Kull has strong ties to dairy farming, to the university and to CALS. Kulls” family operated Mariondale Farms, a 220-acre dairy and hog farm in Walworth County. Both of his parents were UW-Madison graduates. Kull graduated from UW-Madison in 1965 with a bachelor of science degree in ag education. While in graduate school, he worked for the college”s Research Division, and met his wife Mary, a UW-Madison alumna, during this time. Kull was a charter member of the CALS Board of Visitors, serving from 1988-1992. Since then he has been active as an emeritus board member. In 1992, he and Jack Gherty, fellow UW alum and CEO and President of Land O”Lakes, initiated an agribusiness MBA program at UW-Madison.

Kull spent most of his professional life with Land O”Lakes. Over the years, he worked his way up the chain of command, first with Lake to Lake Dairy Cooperative, a division of Land O”Lakes, working as a marketing and legislative assistant from 1974-1980, then as vice president and chief operating office, 1981-1993. Kull was vice president of dairy membership with Land O”Lakes, 1994-1997, then director of member relations, 1997-2004.

Kull”s knowledge of the dairy industry helped him promote the cooperative model that he so strongly advocates. As the liaison between Land O”Lakes and its co-op members, he explained mergers, provided educational programs for youth and young farmers and built bridges of understanding and cooperation.
Kull has served on the boards of many professional organizations, including the National Milk Produces Federation, the Central Milk Producers Cooperative and the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives.

“I have worked with Lawrie for more than 25 years, and know him to be dedicated to the success of Wisconsin dairy producers…” said John E. Gherty, president and CEO of Land O”Lakes. “His insight and leadership have helped not only our agricultural business grow, but he has extended his contributions to the UW and all Wisconsin farmers, never seeking recognition for himself.”
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writer: Sarah Aldridge

Robert Rennebohm
Robert Rennebohm”s distinguished career with the University of Wisconsin Foundation has provided a lasting legacy to the College, the university and the state. As the foundation”s executive director, and later as its president, Rennebohm helped others realize the value of investing in the university. This year, in light of his contributions to higher education in Wisconsin, the College has selected Rennebohm for an Honorary Recognition Award.

“Bob”s dedication and commitment to the University has affected every department on campus,” says James Steele, a professor of food science. “In the College in particular, his leadership dramatically increased the role of private support.”

Rennebohm graduated from the UW-Madison food science department-then called dairy and food industries-in 1948, and has been a supporter of the program, the College and the university ever since. Rennebohm”s work with the UW Foundation stretched from 1955 until his retirement in 1988; he continues to serve the foundation as a consultant. He has also directed Hilldale, Incorporated since1975, and serves on the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation board.

As Rennebohm moved forward with his career, he remembered his roots in food science, Steele says. “Bob encouraged the Rennebohm foundation to support the food science department”s Babcock Hall renovation, and create the Tygum Auditorium to support continuing education of food industry personnel.”

Rennebohm also helped to arrange other contributions to the College, including land and a public events building for the Arlington Agricultural Research Station, and the BioStar gift for the new microbial sciences building. “The College has benefited from Bob”s judgment and foresight,” says Steven Skolaski, president of the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation.

The CALS projects are typical of initiatives that Rennebohm has been involved with elsewhere in the university, says Skolaski. “Under Bob”s leadership, the University of Wisconsin Foundation has partnered with the different colleges to make the University of Wisconsin a great institution. Bob has always been known as a person of great integrity, and was instrumental in helping many of the colleges on campus further their development.”
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Writer: Katie Weber

Robert Williams
When it comes to dedication to a job, it”s hard to beat Bob Williams-four years after officially retiring from the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, he still holds a part-time position and continues his work as the state”s county fairs coordinator. In appreciation of his commitment to rural life in Wisconsin, Williams has been selected this year for an Honorary Recognition Award from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

“Bob is a fixture at many agricultural events around Wisconsin,” says Rick Daluge, a CALS assistant dean. “From county fairs to dairy breakfasts to commodity organization meetings, Bob is there, either speaking, consulting, or making eggs and cherries jubilee in a large fry pan.”

Williams still travels across the state to visit dozens of fairs each year, and probably puts in as many hours as some fulltime employees do, Daluge says. Through countless workshops and presentations he has become “well known in Wisconsin agricultural circles as well as nationally, and has done much to improve Wisconsin”s agriculture and our agricultural communities.”

Williams also teaches a course on county fair leadership through the CALS Short Course program, and is a fixture at College events across the state, including the WALSAA Fire-Up-where he serves his famous Potatoes Ole-and the Association of Women in Agriculture”s Breakfast on the Farm.

Williams learned to love agriculture and rural life while growing up on his family”s vegetable farm in central Wisconsin. He and his wife Ruth later owned a “Mom and Pop” grocery store in Pardeeville, which they operated with their children. He was also a vocational agricultural instructor and FFA advisor, and in 1981 transitioned to the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection where he worked with commodity groups as well as Wisconsin fairs.

“You can go to any fair in Wisconsin and the leadership there will have a great respect for Bob, and will have benefited from his seemingly unlimited knowledge,” says Jane Grabarski, secretary of the Wisconsin Association of Fairs. “Imagine how many miles Bob has covered over the past years, visiting 25 or 30 fairs annually. How many people do you know who continue to work at their job six years after retiring?”
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writer: Katie Weber