Cody Creech, University of Nebraska–Lincoln associate professor of agronomy and horticulture and Nebraska Extension dryland cropping systems specialist at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff, has been named the Fenster Professor of Dryland Agriculture.
Charlie Fenster was a dryland cropping specialist at PREC for several decades. The Fenster Professorship is intended to perpetuate scientific progress in dryland agriculture by supporting research and Extension programs that enhance the profitability and sustainability of dryland agriculture in the Panhandle.
Fenster was an innovator in conservation farming in Nebraska. His work on farming methods such as conservation tillage and ecofallow is fundamental to the environmentally sound cultural practices used in dryland farming today.
Creech has served as the dryland cropping systems specialist at the PREC since 2015. He received his doctoral degree in 2015 in agronomy and weed science from Nebraska, a master’s degree in plant science in 2012 from Utah State University and a bachelor’s degree in business operations management in 2008 from Utah State.
Creech oversees research at UNL’s High Plains Agricultural Lab near Sidney. His research and extension efforts focus on enhancing agronomic practices to increase profitability, optimizing soil water conservation and delivering weed management solutions. His research has refined the seeding recommendations for winter wheat and evaluated the role wheat residue has in facilitating soil water conservation.
Creech has managed the Nebraska Variety Testing Program, which moved its base to the High Plains Ag Lab, for several years. Under his direction, the list of crops in the variety testing program has expanded from just winter wheat to now include wheat, corn, soybean, grain sorghum and other crops.
In 2019 Creech received the Early Career Award from the Crop Science Society of America for outstanding contributions to agronomy through education, national and international service, and research. He is an active member of CSSA, the American Society of Agronomy, and national and regional Weed Science societies. He has served as an associate editor for the Agronomy Journal. He is also a Robert B. Daugherty Institute Global Water for Food Faculty Fellow.
Fenster's research at HPAL on dryland farming practices has had a widespread and lasting impact on wheat yields, soil and water conservation, and profitability. It has helped transform the way dryland farmers raise crops in the High Plains, from the original wheat-black fallow rotation, which was associated with dust storms and severe wind erosion, into the more productive, sustainable conservation tillage systems used today.
Fenster was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Agricultural Achievement in 1983, and in 1991 was recognized as an honoree for the Nebraska Hall of Agricultural Achievement. He was recognized as an honoree for the Nebraska Agribusiness Club Public's Service to Agriculture Award in 2000 and was the 2008 recipient of the Outstanding Service to Panhandle Agriculture Award. Fenster's contributions received permanent formal recognition in August 2015 during the annual High Plains Ag Lab Field Day, when a new building completed in 2014 was named for him. He retired in 1982 and passed away in 2016.
In 2005 the Fensters endowed the Charles R. and Eunice R. Fenster Professorship Fund at the University of Nebraska Foundation. This is the first established professorship for faculty in Nebraska’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources who are at an off-campus location.
Creech is the second Fenster professor. His predecessor at the Panhandle Center, Drew Lyon, professor and interim chair of the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at Washington State University in Pullman, became the first to hold the position in 2008.
Pictured at left are Keith Rexroth, from left, HPAL advisory committee chair, Jeff Bradshaw, associate professor of entomology, Cody Creech, Martha Mamo, Department of Agronomy and Horticulture department head, and Marcia White, Director of Development for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska Foundation.
