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The Alliance for Grassland Renewal is pleased to announce that Dr. Sam Ingram from Corteva Agrisciences will be joining the board. Corteva was a founding member of the Alliance which is a collaborative of Industry, Academia and Governmental members working to encourage and support the appropriate adoption of Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue. Dr. Ingram started his career as an extension agent with the University of GA where he worked full time while completing an MS in forage management under the direction of Lawton Stewart and Dennis Hancock.

Dr. Ingram started working on a PhD in 2016 at North Carolina State University and completed his degree in 2019. His dissertation focus was Conversion Systems for Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue. In his study he compared systems with one summer annual smother crop (Spray-Smother-Spray) to a system with three seasons of annual. He also evaluated the use of a mixed species smother crop in the three year system.The research was guided by an interdisciplinary team with a focus on soil health, forage growth and animal production. Key findings were that soil health was better under perennial tall fescue in comparison to the annual forages, and that the high level of performance seen on the annual smother crops helped to offset the cost of converting to Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue.