The Missouri Livestock Symposium is proud to announce that Mr. Charles Rosenkrans of Paris, Missouri will be awarded the 2016 Agriculture Educator Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Missouri Livestock Symposium in Kirksville, MO on Friday evening, December 2, 2016.
The award is presented yearly to an agriculture educator who has made a significant contribution to the agriculture industry in northeast Missouri through their educational efforts. Applications are due August 1 of every year and can be found on the Missouri Livestock Symposium website at www.missourilivestock.com.
Charles Rosenkrans was raised on a general livestock and dairy farm 10 miles south of Hannibal, MO. He attended and graduated from the one room Centenary Elementary School. He attended his freshman year of high school at New London and graduated from ILASCO High School in May one-room
Charlie worked for Fred and Ernest Brinkmeier from June of 1953 to August of 1957. He attended the University of Missouri from August 1957 to May of 1959. He attended Hannibal LaGrange University from June 1959 to January of 1960. He then returned to the University of Missouri in January of 1960 and graduated with a B.S. in Animal Science December 1961. January 1962 he worked as a research assistant at the University of Missouri sheep department under the direction of Dr. C.V. Ross and shepherd Jack Rhoades.
July 1, 1962 Charlie was hired by the University of Missouri Extension Division as an Extension Agent in Training and worked under Raymond Smith in Milan, MO. On September 16, 1962 he started working in Pike County, MO as a 4-H Youth Agent. From 1966 to 1968 he worked in Mercer and Grundy counties as Area Agricultural Agent headquartered at Princeton, MO. From 1969 to 1972 he worked as Livestock Specialist in Mercer, Grundy, Harrison, Putman, Daviess and Sullivan Counties, and from 1973 to 1974 he worked as Agricultural Specialist in Monroe County. Charlie returned as a Livestock Specialist in Miller and Morgan counties from 1974 to 1976 and finished his Extension career as a Livestock Specialist serving Monroe and Pike counties until his retirement March 4, 2000.
Charlie started writing a weekly column while in Pike County and continued writing them in different locations for thirty years. He won many State of Missouri Extension Media awards. In 1972 three of his columns were named the best in the National Column Contest conducted by the National Agricultural County Agents Association.
Charlie conducted the first farrowing schools for women in outstate Missouri at Curryville, Monroe City, Clarence and Philadelphia. He started weighing bulls in 1965 at Ed Glenn Polled Hereford Farm in Louisiana, MO and Buddy Prewitt Charolais Farm near Clarksville. He weighed thousands of bulls after that in Mercer, Harrison, Putman, Grundy, Daviess, Caldwell, Livingston, Monroe Miller Morgan, Shelby, Audrain and Randolph counties. In 1968 he started measuring bulls at the North Missouri Experiment Farm at Spickard, MO to get his Master’s Degree in December 1972. This led to the development of the Missouri Cattle frame scoring system under the guidance of Drs. John Massey and G.B. Thompson. The frame scoring system is presently used nationwide.
He attended many, many production tested boar sales with producers in Columbia and Canton, MO and Iowa State in Ames, IA to assist producers in selecting boars to use in their hog operations. He assisted Keith Leavitt, Maurice Alexander and Rick Disselhorst sonoray thousands of boars and gilts to measure back fat and loin eye size for purebred producers in Pike, Monroe, Shelby, Mercer, Grundy, Daviess and Linn counties.
He sorted feeder pig and feeder calf sales with the Missouri Cooperative Feeder Livestock Association from North to South Missouri from 1966 to 1978. He has judged many community, county and district livestock shows from north to south Missouri. He has coached two 4-H livestock judging teams and twelve 4-H meats judging teams that have gone to Nationals in Manhattan, KS and Kansas City, MO during the American Royal Livestock Shows.
Charlie worked 53 4-H camps as a Director, Assistant Director or teaching educational sessions or providing help with campfires and supplies. Last year he received the 4-H Alumni award in Monroe County. He received his forty year 4-H Leader certificate this year.
Charlie received FFA Honorary Chapter Farmer degrees from Bowling Green, Princeton and Paris FFA Chapters. In 2005 he received the Honorary State Farmer award.
He started working at the Missouri State Fair as Assistant Swine Superintendent in 1975 to 1978, and was named Superintendent in 1979 to 1989. The State Fair Swine shows were dedicated to Charlie in 1998. He started working the Missouri State Fair ham, bacon, sausage show as Superintendent in 2001 to the present time.
On August 10, 1958 Charlie married Marilyn Muehring in Hannibal, MO. They had five sons: Charles Jr, Mike, Keith, Randy and Dean (deceased June 10, 1982). The four sons are all graduates of the University of Missouri, Columbia, MO. Marilyn passed away February 17, 2002. June 20, 2003 he married Betty Hillard Sherwood Smith. She passed away September 6, 2008. July 5, 2009 he married Leslie Ekedahl Young and they live on a small acreage northwest of Paris, MO. Charlie operates a small crossbred beef herd on the home farm south of Hannibal and on rented ground east of Paris.
The Missouri Livestock Symposium would like to congratulate Charles Rosenkrans on receiving the 2016 Agriculture Educators Lifetime Achievement Award. Thank you for your commitment to agriculture education and our community.
The Missouri Livestock Symposium is December 2 & 3, 2016 at the William Matthew Middle School in Kirksville, MO. The program offers something for everybody and is known for its outstanding programs for horse, beef cattle, forage, sheep, meat goat and stock dog owners and producers. The Symposium brings in speakers from several states, coast-to-coast.
The Missouri Livestock Symposium also features an agriculturally related trade show, a free beef meal on Friday evening at 6 p.m., and a free lunch on Saturday at noon, coordinated by the Missouri Department of Agriculture and sponsored by many of Missouri’s fine commodity groups and the Missouri Livestock Symposium planning committee.
Friday evening’s program will feature a keynote address by Dr. Scott Brown, ag economist with the University of Missouri. Full program details can be found at www.missourilivestock.com, on our Facebook page, or by calling 660-665-9866.
