UK Agriculture, Food and Environment Dean Nancy Cox
After leading the University of Kentucky’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environment through one of the most transitional periods in recent agriculture history, Scott Smith announced late last year that he would be leaving his post as dean of the college at the end of 2013.
As one might expect, replacing a dean like Smith is not the easiest of tasks, but UK was prepared in a way, having one of the most respected figures in agriculture education already on staff.
The announcement came from UK Provost Christine Riordan in November that Nancy Cox, the associate dean of research in the college, would take over, starting Jan. 1, while Smith continued at the university as a faculty member.
Cox had served as associate dean since 2001, when she came to UK from Mississippi State University. While there, she was a regular faculty member with experience in research and some extension until about the mid ’90s, when she started into the administrative path.
“That opened a world, for me, of an appreciation of ag research and all the things we do for the states we live in when we are a land grant university,” said Cox. “Also a great appreciation for the extension part of our house that is so committed to every community. It’s part of, really, the brain trust of leadership in every county in Kentucky.”
With all the information and services the extension service offers, Cox said she often hears it is the best well-kept secret about the university.
“All College of Agriculture people tend to [think], ‘Let’s get it done and let’s not talk about ourselves,’ but we’re trying to do a better job of getting our message out about the relevancy of what we do,” she said. “Extension does do so much more than ag production. It does economic development. It partners with health care. It is getting a prominent role in the local food movement that may also have the effect of building the ag economy even further, as we capitalize on that.”
From a research standpoint, UK has taken great strides in its efforts to climb the ladder among the top research universities in the country. Cox said the College of Agriculture has certainly played a part in that.
“When you think about the College of Ag research program, we do a lot that you see and is applied research, such as irrigation on corn and soybeans, but we do a lot that you don’t see, [like] research, maybe on basic molecular processes of a plant or animal,” she said. “But we have researchers who do the more bench-type lab research who are very prominent in their field.”
In that research vein, Cox noted that external funding has been tripled in the past several years.
“We are credible in the national and international science worlds, and I think that was one of the big components when we started talking about being a top-20 research institution,” she said. “Ag is usually about second in terms of grant awards at the university — second to medicine.”
In terms of the overall health of the agriculture industry in Kentucky, Cox said it has been an amazing transformation to watch and be a part of over the past 10 or 12 years.
“There are so many factors that have aided in the diversification of the ag economy. The university is one, and we have certainly tried to discover new ways for row crops and new crops to grow, but you also have an amazing group of agriculture partners in the state,” she said. “The Kentucky Department of Agriculture, the Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy and the Ag Development Board have had untold effect on this diversification of the economy. The Farm Bureau has supported us, so we are very fortunate in Kentucky that all of our ag leadership pulls together. It’s a good situation for us.”
Cox added that the administration of the university has been instrumental in keeping the college on the forefront of agriculture leadership, but the extension agents across the state that are on the ground, delivering programs, and the scientists who are discovering new technologies and testing them first are most important.
“Couple that with the kind of students we produce, who are the workforce for agriculture, and we have a total commitment to Kentucky,” she said.
Cox noted how important it is to continue research on the state’s many crops, including the traditional ones, such as tobacco, corn and soybeans, and the not-so-traditional, such as switchgrass, chia and miscanthus.
She also emphasized the importance of animal agriculture in the state, noting that she has spent her career as an animal scientist and Kentucky is a great animal agriculture state.
And no conversation with Cox would be complete without the mention of Kentucky’s storied horse industry. She said that while the Thoroughbred industry is at the heart and soul of the state’s identity as the “Horse Capital of the World,” the show- and sport-horse industry is a big part of the entire equine picture as well. She also called Kentucky the “Horse Health Capital of the World,” because of the great facilities at the university and the outstanding vet clinics in the state.
While the state has enjoyed an agriculture industry that has remained strong, bringing in $5 billion in ag cash receipts for the year, Cox said she thinks it can grow more, especially as more and more consumers turn to local foods.
“It [agriculture] is not traditionally thought of as economic development in a manufacturing sense, but we think of it as economic development in a very fundamental sense,” she said.