Ben Brown, senior research associate and extension specialist, Division of Applied Social Sciences, has received the 2025 J.W. Burch State Specialist Agricultural Extension Award. Brown was honored at CAFNR’s annual awards ceremony, Celebration of Excellence, on Thursday, April 17.
Nominators say Brown is an outstanding colleague for the University of Missouri Extension Agricultural & Business Policy team and an invaluable resource for Missouri’s agricultural sector, delivering vital expertise to farmers and the agribusiness community.
“Through his programming leadership, engaging presentations, quality publications and extensive media presence, we feel he is an excellent candidate for this award,” his team of nominators said.
Brown leads the Agricultural Lenders Seminar series, an annual executive education program covering market outlooks, farm financial conditions and land values. In addition, he routinely collaborates with FAPRI-MU in leading farm-level and sectoral outreach initiatives, and travels the state regularly providing market outlook to county farm bureaus and other organizations.
He excels at extending access to extension resources through the news media. He writes columns for Today’s Farmer, Cattlemen’s News and Missouri Soybean Farmer and has consistently provided crop market and outlook commentary on Brownfield Ag News and Farm Journal Media. In 2024, Brown was mentioned 735 times in news media, reaching an audience of 11.2 million.
“As a farmer-owned cooperative, we value Ben’s authentic connection to agriculture, which stems from his background of growing up on a diversified row crop and cattle operation in Bates County,” said John Ihler, president and CEO of MFA Oil. “What sets Ben apart is his innovative approach to agricultural education. At our recent Emerging Leaders in Ag conference, he led young farmers through an interactive commodity trading simulation that demonstrated market dynamics and risk management principles. This hands-on approach exemplifies his ability to make complex economic concepts accessible and engaging for producers.”