If you ask professor John Lamb about his job accomplishments, you won't likely get an ear full. Professor Lamb is a modest man, who will tell you that he is just doing his job. Well, by just doing his job, he helped a sugar beet cooperative increase its annual profits by $17 million and recently won the 2004 COAFES Tenured Distinguished Teaching Award for his efforts in the classroom.
Lamb has always had a close tie to agriculture. His parents grew up on farms and his dad was a county agricultural extension agent in a rural Nebraska town of about 1,000 people. That background led Lamb to complete some soil judging in high school. But, it was computer science engineering that initially caught his interest as a student at the University of Nebraska.
After taking a physics course, Lamb realized that agriculture was a better fit. He started studying agricultural economics and also took an interest in soils after taking a class from Nebraska professor Gary Peterson. Lamb graduated from Nebraska with Bachelor's degrees in Agronomy and Agricultural Economics. He received his Master's in Soil Fertility and Management from Iowa State University in 1980, and then went on to earn a Ph. D. in Soil Fertility and Soil Management from the University of Nebraska in 1984.
After receiving his doctorate degree, Lamb became an assistant professor in the Department of Soil Science at the University of Minnesota's Northwest Experiment Station. From there, Lamb's nutrient-management research career got its start. While at Crookston, Lamb worked on nutrient management for sugar beet, spring wheat, and soybean - a relatively new crop to the area at the time.
Some of Lamb's work in nitrogen management for economical soybean production has been the foundation for production nutrient management recommendations in Northwestern Minnesota and Eastern North Dakota. Lamb was very active in a team composed of several disciplines of faculty from North Dakota State University and the University of Minnesota to improve production practices for sugar beet production. In 1990, Lamb became an associate professor in the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate (SWAC) on the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. He continued his efforts to create better nutrient-management programs for area growers. And in the summer of 1996, the Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative contacted Lamb and fellow SWAC professor George Rehm, asking the pair to visit Renville, Minnesota and look for ways to improve nitrogen applications for the growers' sugar beets.
In a resulting partnership, Lamb worked with Co-op Research Agronomists Mark Bredehoeft and Steve Roehl to set up field trials and looked for the best amount of nitrogen needed to produce high-quality sugar beets. Turns out, there was a "sweet spot." Lamb and his colleagues found that too little nitrogen fertilizer caused tonnage will drop, but too much lowered the sugar beet's quality (less sugar content and more difficult to refine). The fieldwork paid off. Lamb and the Cooperative agronomists were confident they could recommend nitrogen application levels to growers. This, however, was the only the first hurdle to clear.
Lamb and the Cooperative agronomists now had to look for ways to convince growers to accept this change in nitrogen application. This was not an easy task, because many growers saw nitrogen application as cheap insurance. Putting on excess nitrogen ensures that tonnage stays up - a primary concern for the grower. Nevertheless, Lamb, Bredehoeft, Roehl, and the Co-op's Vice President for Agriculture, Kelvin Thompsen, convinced the growers through close partnerships.
They grew experimental test plots in growers' fields, adopting the recommended nitrogen application level. The research led to reduced nitrogen and phosphorous applications, saving growers $1 million and reducing stress on the environment. The sugar beet quality also increased and the Co-op's sugar refinery ran much more efficiently. Now, the sugar beets had a high sugar content and were easier to refine. This increased efficiency translated into a $17 million profit increase for the Co-op in 2003.
When Lamb isn't busy with research and extension work, he is sharing his expertise in the classroom. When Lamb first became an associate professor in the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, his teaching duties were fairly limited. That changed in the winter of 1996 when he first taught the beginning soils class for undergraduates (Soil 2125: Basic Soil Science).
In 2000, the Department asked Lamb to teach this class during the spring semester and he has done so ever since. Lamb was a bit skeptical on whether he would enjoy teaching, but he now says it is one of the most satisfying parts of his job. Many students say that Lamb is an enjoyable and exceptional instructor, proven by his selection for the 2004 COAFES Tenured Distinguished Teaching Award. It's an award that is very humbling, he says. Lamb is also the Coordinator of Agriculture Industries and Marketing (AIM) program, the last all-college major left consisting of 1/3 rhetoric, 1/3 business, and 1/3 technical component (including crops and soils, food industries, or an individually-decided emphasis).
Lamb is a technology junkie. At home and at work, he is tinkering with new gadgets such as computers, digital cameras, or his i-pod. Other interests include model trains, radio-controlled airplanes, or anything else that presents a new challenge. In his free time, Lamb enjoys spending time with his wife (a USDA plant geneticist) and daughter (a recent high school graduate), as well as, working in the perennial gardens and lawn at his home.
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