ACN Honors George Rehm with Distinguished Service Award

LAGRANGE, GA – George Rehm, University of Minnesota (U of M) Extension Soil Fertility Specialist, has been posthumously named the Agricultural Communicators Network (ACN) Distinguished Service Award recipient for 2024. Rehm’s nutrient management Extension program was used across the country. He was known for both being a skilled educator and a charismatic supporter of Minnesota and Nebraska farmers. Rehm passed away in January 2024.

The Distinguished Service Award is presented to non-members who give back to the agricultural community and have demonstrated outstanding leadership efforts in agricultural education, science, or public affairs. ACN has named Distinguished Service Award recipients since 1947. Rehm’s family will be receiving this award on his behalf during the 2024 Agricultural Media Summit in Kansas City, Missouri on August 6.

Rehm’s life was always 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 Minnesota to obtain his master’s and PhD in soil science.  In 1969, he accepted a position as an Extension soil fertility specialist at the University of Nebraska’s Northern Regional Extension Center. He returned to Minnesota in 1983 to continue to bleed maroon and gold again, when he became the University of Minnesota’s Extension soil fertility specialist.

“His nutrient management Extension program was highly regarded nationally,” said Carl Rosen, who heads the University of Minnesota’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.”

According to Rosen, Rehm had the ability to connect with farmers wherever he went, 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,” he said.

He did much of  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.

In Minnesota, 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 then go to the Red River Valley, and then  the hill country of southeastern Minnesota,” Rehm shared.

One common theme of Rehm’s career was 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. He also kept his research chops sharp by working with Discovery Farms of Minnesota as a fertility specialist. He also served as a consultant and expert witness in legal cases.

Looking back, Rehm was 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,” said 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.

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