Connee Quinn Receives BIF Continuing Service Award


Connie Quinn receives the Continuous Service Award from Richard McClung, 2003 BIF President.
The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) honored Dr. Connee Quinn with the Continuing Service Award at the 35th Annual Meeting and Research Symposium in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 30, 2003.

Connee Quinn has a lifelong involvement in and passion for ranching and the beef cattle business. Raised on a ranch near Chadron, Nebraska, Connee and husband Reuben, currently operate Quinn Cow Company along with niece Wendy and her husband, Tony George. The Quinn ranch is a commercial cow-calf enterprise utilizing mostly leased land on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota. Connee received her B.S. and M.S. degrees from Chadron State College in science education. After teaching high school science for four years, she earned a PhD in animal science from Colorado State University, specializing in animal nutrition. Connee taught vocational agriculture in Mission, South Dakota, and developed an award winning high school curriculum on native range grasses as recognized by the Soil Conservation Service.

Since receiving her Ph.D., Connee has been employed by Elanco Animal Health as a sales representative working in western South Dakota, northeastern Wyoming and the Nebraska Panhandle. On behalf of Elanco, Connee calls on cow-calf producers and feedlot operators in the area.

The Quinn’s have been recognized as the South Dakota Commercial Producers of the Year by the South Dakota Beef Improvement Council and were nominated for the BIF Commercial Producer of the Year in 1990. Connee received a prestigious award from the University of Nebraska for Outstanding Contributions to Agriculture in Western Nebraska also in 1990. In 1991 she was awarded one of the five "Prime Promoter" awards from the South Dakota Beef Industry Council for her outstanding educational efforts on behalf of ranchers and feedlot operators. Connee serves as chairman of the NCBA’s IRM Calf Information Task Force. This task force has the charge to determine what information is important to the cow/calf producers customer and how that information can be most efficiently transferred. She also served on the NCBA’s Industry Planning Group. She is currently involved is several Integrated Resource Management (IRM) committees at both the state and national level as well as serving on the IRM Advisory Board. Connee is immediate past-president of the Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) and served three years on the BIF board.

Connee has made numerous high-energy, challenging presentations to rancher, feedlot, veterinary and other beef industry groups. Her passion for the practical side of ranching and appreciation of the science of the beef business give Connee a unique credability that few can match. Connee Quinn’s tireless travels and efforts on behalf of the beef industry are truly commendable. Her continuing sevice on behalf of the beef industry is truly a labor of love.