The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) presented Troy Smith the BIF Ambassador Award July 4 during the group’s annual symposium in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This award is presented annually by BIF to a team or member of the media for his or her efforts in spreading the BIF message and its principles to a larger audience.
Smith, Sargent, Nebraska, has an enthusiastic passion for the beef industry and has dedicated his career to fostering beef improvement through his role as a freelance writer. Since 1989, you could find his byline in numerous publications including the Angus Journal/Angus Beef Bulletin, Hereford World, Western Horseman, Working Ranch, Draft Horse Journal, Gulf Coast Cattleman, Cattle Business Weekly, Tri-State Livestock News, Record Stockman, Western Livestock Reporter, and Western Livestock Journal. He has also served as a contract writer for the Nebraska Beef Council and Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition.
He has a long history attending and writing about BIF and the BIF Symposium. He attended his first BIF in Dickinson, N.D., in 1997. When the Angus team started the BIF Conference website and providing real-time coverage of the symposium, Smith was part of the first team who attended and covered the event in 2002. He has helped cover each symposium hosted since then, either in person or remotely. He attended each symposium in person from 2002 through 2019.
“As a cattleman himself, Troy has an innate sense of what our readers need to know and the working knowledge to ask the right questions,” explains Shauna Hermel, Angus Beef Bulletin editor. “From the technical to the basic, he delivers a fresh perspective in cowboy lingo.”
More than 300 beef producers, academia and industry representatives attended the organization’s 55th Annual Research Symposium and Convention in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. BIF’s mission is to help improve the industry by promoting greater acceptance of beef cattle performance evaluation.
For more information about this year’s symposium, including additional award winners and coverage of meeting and tours, visit BIFSymposium.com.