Cow tales: Hall kicks off tour with milkings, visits his first two counties in Utah
After kicking off his “Raising the Benchmark Tour” by milking a cow in Rich County Monday, Utah State University President Kermit L. Hall came home Tuesday to Cache County, the second county on the tour.
Hall milked Fritzie, a 5-year-old bovine who is one of the top producers of milk in the state, at 8 a.m. just west of Old Main, shortly after finishing breakfast with community leaders and USU administrators and faculty. He took time after breakfast to change into his “cow-milking outfit” – a set of coveralls inscribed with his name and a green frog, compliments of the Caine Dairy.
Hall announced the tour – vowing to milk a cow in each of Utah’s 29 counties – shortly after becoming USU’s 14th president in January of this year. The purpose of the tour, named for the bench around most of Cache Valley, is to enhance the university’s visibility.
“We sit on the bench and look over the valley,” he said. “[I’d] like to raise the benchmark by traveling throughout the state, reminding [the state] our commitment also extends beyond this valley.”
Within the next six months, Hall will pay a visit to each county, milking a cow as he promised. But Hall also plans to visit with community leaders in each county and let Utah know that USU is a statewide institution.
He said he wants residents of Utah to “see USU not as a place locked in Cache Valley, but as a place in Cache Valley that serves the state.”
The cow milking is a way to remind people “what our roots are,” Hall said. Four percent of cow milk is butter fat, and Hall equates this to the agricultural aspect of USU. He wants people to realize that there is a lot more to USU than agriculture, but that agriculture is still an important part of the university.
Hall’s wife, Phyllis, is joining him on the tour, reading to second graders in each of Utah’s counties. Phyllis Hall recently left her job as director of a library media center in a North Carolina elementary school to join her husband at USU.
Also tagging along with Hall on his tour are student and faculty representatives from USU. At least two students who graduated from high school in each county will travel to that county with Hall, and faculty members whose research or area of study relate to the county will also make the trip.
Faculty members who joined Hall in Cache County were Judy Sims and Sherm Thomson. They traveled with Hall to Sky View High School Tuesday morning to deliver guest lectures to the students there.
Hall’s afternoon included lunch at Gossner’s Foods with agricultural leaders from the county and tours of Campbell Scientific, Inc., Sorenson Vision and Hyclone Laboratories – three companies that have their roots at USU.
At Gossner’s, President and CEO Dolores Wheeler told Hall and the agricultural leaders present that the small family operation started by six people in 1966 now serves much of the world. Gossner’s provides 12 percent of the nation’s swiss cheese, she said.
Hall thanked Wheeler for Gossner’s continued support of USU.
“Gossner’s means a great deal to USU and the community as a whole,” Hall said.
Dairy Farmers of America Director Lee Reese spoke of his concern about farmers retiring and the younger generation not taking interest in agriculture.
Hall’s emphasis on agriculture is important to the agricultural community, said Clark Israelson, agriculture agent for the Cache County Extension.
“As an industry, as a county and as a state, we are very fortunate to have him here,” he said.
Today, Hall will visit Box Elder County, where he will meet with county agriculture leaders, visit the bird refuge, give a guest lecture at Box Elder High School and participate in his third cow milking at the Brigham City branch campus of USU.
In addition to spreading the word about USU’s value to the state during the tour, Hall said he plans to learn about USU from the people in each county. He said he hopes to find out how well the university is performing.
He said he is “trying to understand ways in which the university can better enrich the lives of Utah [through] talking and listening simultaneously.”
USU Pres. Kermit Hall uses both hands to get some milk Tuesday, as he begins his tour to milk a cow in each Utah county. (Scott Davis photo)