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The Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City will honor two of the region’s leading agricultural figures on May 16 at a luncheon in the Chamber Board Room in Kansas City’s historic Union Station. Agricultural Business Council Chairman Robert Thompson notes the honorees are champions for agriculture in separate but very key areas in the region.
The honorees are:
Lee Borck, Chairman of Innovative Livestock Services, Inc., (ILS) and Chairman of the Beef Marketing Group Cooperative (BMG). Combined, these two groups representing cattle feedlots in Kansas and Nebraska, have grown into one of the nation’s largest feeding organizations. As a standalone organization, ILS represents banking, farming, ethanol production and trucking interests. The BMG, under the guidance and leadership of Borck and other central Kansas cattle producers, is a cooperative of cattle producers and farms “focused on working together to do what is right to remain sustainable”. Borck is also chairman of American State Bank of Great Bend, Kansas and is the past President of Cattle-Fax, which is the nation’s leading cattle and data analysis company. Borck has served the industry as president of the Kansas Livestock Association, and has also served as a board member of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Board. He served as the Chairman of the Kansas 4-H Foundation and was Vice Chairman and a board member for the Kansas Bioscience Authority. He was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Kansas State University Foundation. Borck has received numerous awards.
Gene Millard, Millard Family Farms. Millard retired in 2003 after a nearly 40-year career in Radio and Farm broadcasting. He joined KFEQ radio in St. Joseph in 1964 as a farm broadcaster and in 1976 he was named the station’s general manager. In 1999 he became vice president of Eagle Radio Inc. which included stations KFEQ, KSJQ, KKJO, KSFT and the Ag Info Center. In retirement he continues to host a one-hour live show each Saturday on a 15 station, 5 state network including KFEQ. In addition to operating his family farm with his son, Brian, Millard currently serves as Chairman of the board of Golden Triangle Energy LLC and a board member of Citizens Bank and Trust in Kansas City. He has served as President of the Missouri Broadcasters Association, a board member of the National Association of Broadcasters, Chairman of the Board of the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce, President of the Missouri Kansas Chapter of the National Agri Marketing Association and served as Director of Marketing and Interim Executive of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. In 2009 he served as President of the Missouri Renewable Fuels Association as well as Board Chairman of United Cooperative of Plattsburg and Osborn, MO. He has been honored by numerous organizations and in 2010 was inducted into the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
The honorees will receive the Council’s highest award, the Jay B. Dillingham Award for Agricultural Leadership and Excellence. “These individuals have had a positive and lasting effect on our community, said Council Chairman Thompson. “They are strong examples of what being an advocate for agriculture can accomplish.”
The May 16 event will be held at the Chamber of Commerce Board Room in Union Station beginning at 11:30 a.m. for networking, followed by lunch at noon.