2007 F. O. Butler Award for Excellence in Service

Dr. Alvaro Garcia is the 2007 recipient of the SDSU F. O. Butler Award for Excellence in Service. This award presented at the fall commencement ceremonies comes in recognizition of Dr. Garcia's outstanding contributions as Dairy Extension Specialist. Dr. Alvaro Garcia has been a faculty member in Dairy Science as Extension Specialist since 2001 and currently holds the title of Associate Professor. As a Dairy Extension Specialist, Dr. Garcia focuses upon the themes of improving profitability for dairy producers and extension education in South Dakota. His diversified experience in dairying that includes South America, Europe and North America, has added a unique dimension to his activities and enhanced his Extension functions at SDSU. He also teaches a Dairy Spanish class in response to the current need for dairy professionals in the region. Dr. Garcia designs his extension programs to empower producers rather than just solve immediate problems. This approach as resulted in demonstrated reductions in somatic cell counts and increases in revenue. Dr. Garcia has been a lecturer at over 60 events within and outside the State and overseas.

Dr. Garcia is an active participant in local and national organizations such as the Central Plains Dairy Expo and the National Professional Dairy Heifer Growers Association. Dr. Garcia has been active in 4 volunteer assignments (two in 2007) in Honduras and El Salvador sponsored by Winrock International, The University of Florida and the United States Agency for International Development. These assignments were with the purpose of improving hygienic milk production in Central American countries. The impact was measured by USAID and showed a 15% increase in milk production in the area where this intervention took place in Honduras. The impact of El Salvador assignments have yet to be determined but between the first and second assignment hand-made milk cooling tanks were already in place and working.

Dr. Garcia is author or coauthor of 25 Extension Extras and numerous other publications and radio stories. He provided major contributions to the College of ABS Livestock Development Document. He has also conducted workshops in Spanish. This has taken the SDSU Dairy Extension program and the SDSU Extension program in general to a new and unique level of outreach and is recognized by many in other states as well. Because many dairies in the region now employ Spanish-speaking employees, Dr. Garcia’s dairy expertise coupled with Spanish has played a major role in helping increase the profitability of local producers. Dr. Garcia regularly translates publications of the Dairy Science Department into Spanish. These publications have also been reprinted by journals in Spain and Portugal and provide an international outreach of the SDSU Extension programs. Locally these publications have been published in “Extension in Español” initiative of the USDA. Similarly eXtension which nucleates the Extension efforts of all Land Grant Institutions in the U.S. has been reprinting some of these publications.

He has also been invited to speak in neighboring states in areas of his expertise. Dr. Garcia has collaborated with the SD Department of Agriculture and provided professional, factual information to prospective producers. Through his collaborations with the Department of Agriculture, the importance of dairying in South Dakota and at SDSU have been well noted. Dr. Garcia regularly collaborates with Dairy Production faculty in developing grant proposals and conducting several research projects, recently on the applications of distiller’s grains in dairy diets.

In recognition of his outstanding performance Dr. Garcia received the 2004 College of ABS Dean and Directors Team Award for efforts displayed to improve dairy profitability. In April 2006 Dr. Garcia was selected for the SDSU Gamma Sigma Delta Extension award. He was also nominated by the College for participating in the National Extension Leadership Development Program. Through this program he participated in 4 extensive workshops around the country for leadership development.

15 December 2007

South Dakota State University / Dairy Science Department
Dairy Microbiology Rm 109 / Phone: 605-688-4116
College of Agricultural and Biological Sciences