Feb 23, 2016

International Fruit Tree Association announces 2016 award recipients

The International Fruit Tree Association (IFTA) gathered together over 400 orchardists, nursery professionals and plant scientists from 9 different countries in Grand Rapids, Michigan recently for its 59th Annual Conference and Tours. During the conference, IFTA held an awards dinner banquet and recognized industry leaders in four different categories of industry professionals.

The 2016 Outstanding Award recipients are:

Extension Award: Amy Irish-Brown, senior Extension educator, Michigan State University. Irish-Brown has worked with many of the tree fruit orchardists for nearly 25 years. Irish-Brown specialized in Tree Fruit IPM and covered West-Central Michigan. She focused on apple IPM and serves as a resource for the whole state. Irish-Brown is a speaker on the subjects of tree fruit, pest control and agriculture labor issues.

Researcher Award: Randy Beaudry, Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University. Beaudry’s research has recently been focused on pre-harvest maturity and post-harvest storage of all apples but recently in particular, on the difficulties with the Honeycrisp variety. Beaudry’s recent work includes reducing storage disorders and improving CA storage of Honeycrisp. Recent work has proven the need to pre-condition Honeycrisp apples after harvest before storage to eliminate storage breakdown. Post-harvest treatments also increased fruit quality.

Grower Award: Ed Wittenbach, Wittenbach Orchards. A past board of director of IFTA, he has received numerous awards over his lifetime of growing tree fruit. His farm host’s the NC-140 Honeycrisp Rootstock trial. His farm has often been a favorite stop for IFTA over the past years.

Industry Service Award: Ken Hall, Edwards Apple Orchard. Not only has Hall served nine years on the IFTA Board of Directors, including a term as President, but was also an original Trustee and one of the driving forces, of the recently formed IFTA Research Foundation. He served as the foundation’s first president. He has championed the mission of IFTA and the adoption of technology and shared learning by orchardists for many years, even after his orchard was nearly wiped out by a tornado.

IFTA Hall of Fame: Harold Thome. Thome is a 4th generation farm owner and was inducted into the prestigious 2016 IFTA Hall of Fame. Thome joined IFTA in 1959 and served on the board for 10 years. On Harold’s 220-acre farm he has high-density plantings on two-wire trellis and bamboo stakes that offer 13 different varieties that are now being stored in his brand new controlled-atmosphere storage facility. Thome keeps his orchard young by removing and replanting continuously.