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Last updated on Thursday, July 30, 2015
(BEDFORD) - Lawrence County Purdue Extension Director Dave Redman is retiring.
Redman's official last day is August 7. His co-workers are planning an open house in his honor from 3 - 6 p.m. that day at the Mixing Bowl on X Street.
Redman has been with Purdue Extension Lawrence County for more than 25 years.
"It has been an interesting time," Redman said. "I have met a whole lot of people and enjoyed helping them and the community."
But before that he was influencing others for more than 17 years as a vocational agriculture teacher at both Bedford North Lawrence High School and Orleans.
Besides working with 4-Her's, Redman spends time working with local farmers' crops and livestock and residents' lawn and garden concerns through the Master Gardener program.
He is also actively involved in the bull testing station at Feldun Purdue Ag Center, located on State Road 458, west of Bedford. Research at the farm focuses on commercial beef cattle breeding and management. Scientists in the Department of Animal Sciences use most of the pasture for a cattle herd that is part of a long-range genetics study. Other research has included studies of growth, yield, and cutting alternatives for upland central hardwoods and grazing research. Agronomic field studies with row crops are limited, with roughly 60 acres of soybeans and 140 acres of corn.
"Our common goal is to achieve outcomes in agriculture that benefit people everywhere," Redman added. "My job there is to collect the data."
Redman, who lives in Williams, also serves on the local RTC telephone board and through that became associated with the Foundation of Rural Services, where he represents 17 states, north to Washington D.C. and east of Indiana to Maine. He has served on the Lawrence County Community Foundation Board, worked with Southern Indiana Center for Independent Living and the Lawrence County Cattlemen's Association.
Redman says he will still be active with events at the fair and the bull test station, but plans to spend more time at his family farm and with his four grandchildren. Three live in Wisconsin and he hopes to now spend more time with them.
"I have fences to build, pastures that need attention and 100 head of cattle that I need to get to know more on a personal level," Redman added. "But I am going to miss this job and everyone I have worked with."
No one has been named to replace Redman.
"Purdue will begin advertising the position either this week or next and with a little luck should have the position filled in a month or two," Redman says.
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