Orion Samuelson Honored at WCA Awards Banquet

By Sarah Watson, Livestock Editor
Wednesday, February 20, 2008 4:27 PM CST

Cattlemen and women from across Wisconsin met Feb. 16-17 for their annual two-day Winter Conference held at the North Star Conference Center in Deforest.

The event featured a tradeshow, educational seminars that covered both feedlot and cow-calf sectors, banquet, award presentations and networking.

Providing entertainment at the banquet was Larry Heagle from Fall Creek. The comedic singer-songwriter grew up on a dairy farm and took to playing his guitar with barn cats for an audience.

The highlight of the Wisconsin Cattlemen Association’s Winter Conference was awarding fellow producers and industry professionals n Ken Risler, Eau Claire, was named Cattlemen of the Year; Phil Wyse, Platteville, was the recipient of Friend of the Cattlemen; and Orion Samuelson, Chicago, received Communicator of the year.

Communicator of the Year

A familiar voice and face of the world’s agriculture was on hand to receive the Communicator of the year award co-sponsored by Agri-View and the WCA. Orion Samuelson grew up in the Kickapoo Valley on a dairy farm and has become the most recognizable agriculture figure in the world.

Orion Samuelson is heard on WGN Radio, where he has served as agricultural services director since 1960. Orion is also heard daily on about 240 radio stations and weekly on about 160 stations with his syndicated Samuelson Sez.

His life-long commitment to agriculture has been recognized by organizations in all segments of agri-business.

He has received the National 4-H Alumni Award and the Honorary FFA American Farmer Degree, and is an honorary member of Alpha Gamma Rho, the agriculture fraternity.

In 1985, Orion was inducted into the Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame. He has also been inducted into the National 4-H Hall of Fame, the NAFB Hall of Fame and in November 2003, Orion received the highest award in the radio broadcasting industry when he was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in Chicago. Hall of Famer Paul Harvey presented Orion the award on the national broadcast hosted by Larry King.

Orion has traveled internationally to 43 countries to cover agricultural production and trade for his radio and television shows. Those countries include Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Scotland, England, Hungary, France, Denmark, India, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand, Peoples Republic of China, Brazil, the former USSR, Vietnam and Indonesia. He has also been involved in four official government trips. In October 1989, Orion traveled to Taipei to receive the International Communicator of the Year Award from the President of the Republic of China.

Cattleman of the Year

Ken Risler, Eau Claire, was beef operation manager for Huntsinger Farm from 1981 until 2007 when the 800-cow operation was eliminated.

The operation began with 50 cows from Ken’s father’s farm that Huntsingers purchased. The following year, Ken headed to Montana and bought black baldie heifers and the herd grew from there.

Ken along with the University conducted a pilot projects using electronic ID tags. The goal of using the electronic tags was to evaluate the different equipment options and their user-friendliness. Ken volunteered to keep track of the retention rate of the tags along with the accuracy. He commends the use of electronic ID and found the process helpful in record keeping.

Ken focused heavily on feed efficiency and genetics to better the herd. He was responsible for all the breeding decisions. All first calf heifers were bred AI to select for calving ease. The cows were bred by herd bulls, and Ken had as many as 33 at one time.

Ken has been married to his wife Alice for 37 years. The couple has three grown children Kevin, Kelly and Karen that have given Ken and Alice four grandchildren. Currently Ken is volunteering at the local food pantry, and eventually wants to find his way back to the cattle industry.

WCA Secretary/Treasurer Scott Werelin, Mondovi, presented the award to Mitch Larson, a co-worker of Ken’s, as Ken was “under the weather.”

Phil Wyse

Phil Wyse, director of the UW-Platteville Farm was presented the Friend of the Cattlemen award by Alan Arndt, president of the Wisconsin Beef Improvement Association for his help with the WBIA bull test and sale. The sale is held at the UW-Platteville Farm and Phil predicts there have been almost 5,000 head of bulls and hundreds of consignors in his 36 years at the test station manager.

“He always brings a positive attitude,” Arndt said.

Phil’s duties at the farm include overall management n financial and employee team, Wisconsin Agriculture Stewardship Initiative research and continuous work toward the farm’s mission of education.

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