GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Natalie Rector has spent much of her career working to protect the environmental resources upon which Michigan farmers depend. So, she was named the 2012 recipient of the Michigan Farm Bureau (MFB) Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award during its 93rd Annual Meeting.

The award is MFB’s highest honor and recognizes individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the state’s agriculture industry.

“Natalie’s contributions to Michigan agriculture are extraordinary and unrivaled,” said MFB President Wayne H. Wood. “Every farmer she has influenced over the past 30 years has felt her genuine, personal interest in them and their farm.”

Throughout Rector’s 30-plus-year career, she has been a widely respected crop agent for Michigan State University extension. Now, as extension’s manure nutrient management field specialist, she helps livestock and crop producers work together to make efficient and conscientious use of animal waste.

In nominating Rector, the Calhoun County Farm Bureau wrote, “This individual not only impacted hundreds of farmers in south-central Michigan in her role as a crop agent, but the entire Michigan livestock industry. She exhibited tremendous leadership in developing the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) from its inception, and if anybody needed to get anything done, they called on her.”

“I can’t think of a harder worker more respected in the industry than Natalie,” said Ken Blight, of the Calhoun County Farm Bureau. “She has been the resource person farmers could always count on.”

Rector worked with state officials to develop MAEAP, a proactive voluntary program that helps farms of any size or commodity minimize potential pollution risks. She conducts research and outreach focused on helping farmers use manure in an economical and environmentally friendly manner.

Her work helps farmers save money while conscientiously taking advantage of valuable resources. “I began working with Natalie in the 1980s,” said Doug Bloom, vice president of Branch County Farm Bureau. “She has been great to work with and really relates with farmers.”

Beyond her dedication to and success with extension, Rector has been an active member of the Calhoun County Farm Bureau for the past 20 years and serves on its board of directors. After more than 30 years in the agriculture industry, she has become a vital resource herself – a person producers turn to for sound nutrient management practices and information.

“Natalie helps farmers understand that while protecting the environment, we’re going to save you money. We’re going to put those nutrients and that soil to work for you out in the farm fields,” said MFB Chief Operating Officer Scott Piggott.

“Natalie just understands the approach that farmers will listen to. Sometimes is has an economic bang to it. Sometimes it’s just doing the right thing. She does a very good job in helping farmers understand that there’s more than one reason that we should be doing things, and sometimes environmental protection is a piece. She fits it all together.”

Keith Blonde, a hog producer in Litchfield, said he started working with Rector in the early 1980s.

“I have probably never worked with an extension person that has been more enthusiastic than she has been about what she does. She was able to impress upon us the value of our hog manure and, over several years of testing, showed us that we needed to be putting on less hog manure and the real true value to putting the hog manure down at the proper rates,” Blonde said.

“Now she has us raising 200-bushel plus corn on irrigated ground, with just the hog manure on it.”

Distinguished Service recipients are selected by the MFB board of directors based on nominations submitted by county Farm Bureaus and other ag industry representatives. In considering applicants, the board looks for individuals who have made differences that have improved the economic status and image of Michigan agriculture.