Value Added Ag Hall of Fame awards presented
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The O’Brien County Value Added Ag (VAA) Steering Committee presented the 2023 Ag Hall of Fame awards on July 24 at the O’Brien County Fair. The committee has recognized an outstanding citizen with the Hall of Fame Award since 2001. A business category was added in 2016.
According to the Ag Steering Committee, the successful candidate must have demonstrated leadership, stewardship, community service and service to the agricultural industry. They must also be an O’Brien County resident or someone who engages in agricultural activity in the county.
Dudley McDowell, of rural Archer, was honored as the 2023 recipient of the Value Added Ag Hall of Fame Award. He recently retired after 50 years as a livestock and crop farmer in O’Brien County and continues to assist his daughter and son-in-law in operating the Century Farm. Over the years, McDowell’s farming operation included corn and soybeans, a farrow-to-finish hog operation and a sheep flock. He has shown hogs at the O’Brien County Fair, the Clay County Fair and the Iowa State Fair.
McDowell has been a very active member of the Archer community as well as a member of the O’Brien County Fair Board, where he served as sheep superintendent for many years. He has been an O’Brien County Farm Bureau member since he began farming. He is currently serving on the Prairie View Campus Board of Directors.
McDowell and his wife, Carol, have three sons, one daughter, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.
Archer Cooperative Grain Company was recognized as the business recipient of the Value Added Ag Hall of Fame Award. It is one of only 11 remaining “single location” cooperatives in Iowa. In the beginning, the Archer Cooperative Grain Company only dealt in buying and selling grain. Today, they serve their customers with expanded services such as processing and delivering feed, selling and applying fertilizer and chicken soil conditioner, seed sales, and selling and applying chemicals in addition to owning and managing two chicken layer houses.
The Archer Cooperative Grain Company is a strong supporter of the community, and the O’Brien County Fair and its exhibitors.
O’Brien County Agriculture Hall of Fame nominations are accepted year-round, and those received are saved and considered the next year if that nominee does not win. For more information, contact Kiana Johnson, O’Brien County Economic Development, at (712) 957-1313 or e-mail ocedc@tcaexpress.net.
