“Lynn was nominated for the Merit Award because of her tireless dedication to the forage industry,” said new AFGC President Chad Hale of Western Forage. Prior to his appointment as president, Hale served as AFGC award chair.

“We at AFGC really appreciate the quality of her work and we appreciate her willingness to inform the Progressive Forage Grower readership about the activities of AFGC,” he continued.

“The relationship between AFGC and the publication has been a huge benefit to our membership and we look forward to building on our existing relationship in the future.”

Other 2013 winners of the AFGC Merit Award were:

  • Kim Cassida, forage specialist in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University
  • Sam Stratton, forage program director for FFR Cooperative in Lafayette, Indiana
  • Chris Agee, forage product manager and forage specialist for Pennington Seed in Madison, Georgia
  • Twain Butler, associate professor and research agronomist in the Forage Improvement Division at the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Oklahoma

Click here and select the “AFGC Awards Brochure” link for more information about the Merit Award winners and other recipients of recognition at the AFGC meeting.

Advertisement

“I feel honored to even have been considered for this award, and I am very grateful to the American Forage and Grassland Council organization for this recognition,” Olsen said.

“I appreciate the associations I have made with producers and allied industry who are doing much to make improvements and promote forages and forage production. To be numbered among them and count them as friends and colleagues is truly a blessing in my life.”

Olsen has been with Progressive Publishing – Progressive Cattleman's parent company – since 2003, starting part-time in the editorial department. She then became the manager of the circulation department in 2009, enhancing the company's development and maintenance of a growing database of subscribers.

When her husband Darren, then editor of Progressive Forage Grower, decided to pursue a teaching career in 2010, Olsen took the reins of the publication. One of her first assignments as the new editor was to attend the AFGC annual meeting.

She wrote in her first editorial about the 2010 event, “Producers and industry professionals alike were there to learn more about how to grow the best forages they could, not simply for the sake of growing it, but because of the impact it has on animal agriculture and the environment.”

According to Progressive Forage Grower Publisher Alan Leavitt, Olsen is certainly deserving of this award.

“Lynn has been a true leader at Progressive Publishing in her dual roles as a publication editor and circulation manager,” Leavitt said. “We appreciate her outstanding work ethic, and we’re glad to see her contributions to the forage industry are being recognized.”  end mark