Congrats to George Rehm, the 2024 Distinguished Service Award Recipient!

George Rehm, a retired University of Minnesota (U of M) Extension soil fertility specialist who conducted vital research that continues to be important today, has been named the Agricultural Communicators Network (ACN) Distinguished Service Award recipient for 2024.

Read more about him below.

2024 Distinguished Service Award Recipient Announced!

LAGRANGE, GA – George Rehm, a retired University of Minnesota (U of M) Extension soil fertility specialist who conducted vital research that continues to be important today, has been named the Agricultural Communicators Network (ACN) Distinguished Service Award recipient for 2024.

The Distinguished Service Award is presented to individuals who give back to the agricultural community and have demonstrated outstanding leadership efforts in education, science, or public affairs relevant to agriculture. The ACN has named Distinguished Service Award recipients since 1947. Past recipients have included Dr. Norman Borlaug, the only person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize for work in agriculture, and Dr. Temple Grandin, a noted animal welfare scientist, as well as farmers, economists, and agri-business people.

Rehm’s life has always been soil-focused and dedicated. He started his soil career when he received his Bachelor of Science degree from Ohio State University before moving to the University of Michigan to obtain his master’s and PhD in soil science. He briefly left Michigan in 1969 to accept a position as an Extension soil fertility specialist at the University of Nebraska’s Northern Regional Extension Center. But he returned in 1983 to become an Extension soil fertility specialist at the University of Michigan and continued to bleed blue and yellow again.

“His nutrient management Extension program was highly regarded nationally,” says Carl Rosen, who heads the U of M’s department of soil, water, and climate.  “He gained the trust of farmers through his common sense and practical approach. George was a prolific writer about the latest nutrient management research and fertilizer application guidelines, contributing this information to extension bulletins, popular farm magazines, and most recently online blogs, even in his retirement.”

Rehm has the ability to connect with farmers wherever he goes, making anybody feel like somebody. “He was always in high demand for presenting information to farmers in the Upper Midwest at numerous speaking events every year,” says Rosen.

In Nebraska, he spent his research on iron chlorosis in soybeans. Fortunately, the problem is becoming manageable due to tolerant soybean varieties and a product called SoyGreen that enables plants to better absorb iron.

One of the issues they worked with the region’s farmers on was sulfur (S) additions. “Today, it’s still being tested, but today’s scientists come up with the same answer we did in the mid-1970s,” says Rehm. Only sandy soils low in organic matter are likely to need commercial S applications. On heavier soils, it may green up crops temporarily, but rarely is there a yield response, he says.

In Michigan, Rehm valued the variety the large state provided. “Minnesota has different soils and cropping systems. We would work in the Jackpine counties in the North and went to the Red River Valley and to the hill country of southeastern Minnesota,” Rehm says. 

One common theme of Rehm’s career has been time spent debunking “foo-foo juice”—those “magical” fertilizers or compounds sold by salespeople with a smile, a shoeshine and no backing data.

Years later, in 2015, Rehm was at it again in retirement, presenting a talk as a private consultant about foo-foo juices titled No Good Then, No Good Now.

After retirement, he kept his research chops sharp by working with Discovery Farms of Minnesota as a fertility specialist. Retired from that, he now serves as a consultant and expert witness in legal cases.

Looking back, Rehm is somewhat amused and proud of the fact that many concepts touted as “new” today—such as the 4R program that stresses placing fertilizer at the right rate, time, place and source—are rooted in research he and other soil scientists conducted in Nebraska and Minnesota. 

“I have been very fortunate,” says Rehm. “I look at all the research we conducted and recommendations that are still being used today. And I just had some wonderful researchers and farmers to work with throughout my career.”

 His work has been recognized with awards, including the 1987 Outstanding Soil Scientist by the National Fertilizer Solutions Association, the 1990 Outstanding Contribution to Agronomy from the American Society of Agronomy, the 1994 Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy, the 1998 Fellow of the Soil Science Society of American, the 2001 Outstanding Service to Extension by the Minnesota County Extension Agent Association, the 2002 Outstanding Service to Agriculture by the Minnesota Farm Bureau, and the 2005 Outstanding Service to Minnesota Corn Growers by the Minnesota Corn Growers.

AgWest Farm Credit is sponsoring the ACN DSA this year. Wirth will be honored during the 2024 Ag Media Summit in Kansas City, Missouri, from August 3 -6.

Each year, ACN honors an individual with the Distinguished Service Award (DSA).

The ACN Distinguished Service Award is presented to non-members who are leaders, give back to the agricultural community, and have demonstrated outstanding efforts in education, science, or public affairs relevant to agriculture.

The nominee should be currently active in their field.

Thank You to Our 2024 DSA Sponsor AgWest!

Past Recipients

1971 Donald Spencer

1970 Carroll Plager

1969 Joseph Ackerman

1968 Robert B. Tootell

1967 Norman E. Borlaug

1966 Glenn Burton

1965 Earl W. Heady

1964 E.F. Knipling

1963 D. Howard Doane

1962 Albert K. Mitchell

1961 William I. Myers

1960 Henry Agard Wallace

1959 W.T. Spanton

1958 Perry Holden

1957 A.B. Graham

1956 A.D. Weber

1955 H.H. Kildee

1954 Ezra Taft Benson

1953 Thomas F. Wilson

1952 Sam Higginbottom

1951 Hugh Hammond Bennett

1950 Donald F. Jones

1949 H.E. Babcock

1948 E.S. Macfadden

1947 Liberty Hyde Bailey