D. Howard Doane: Honest work, honest life - Farm Progress ...

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By MARK PARKER. MAYBE Duane Howard Doane could just plain see better than most folks. He saw needs. He saw solu- tions. Most of all, he saw ...
12 www.FarmProgress.com – June 2011

Missouri Ruralist

MISSOURI NEWS SCENE

D. Howard Doane: Honest work, honest life By MARK PARKER

M

AYBE Duane Howard Doane could just plain see better than most folks. He saw needs. He saw solutions. Most of all, he saw opportunities for farmers — and it was vision that put him on the cutting edge of American agriculture for most of the 20th century. Although his life’s work sprang from the Missouri soil, he was actually born near Mexico, N.Y., in 1883. By the age of 7, however, he was a Missourian, and grew up on a farm near Joplin before heading to Columbia and the University of Missouri. And that’s where Doane’s influence really began. As a student, Doane and six friends organized a club and boarding house that would eventually become FarmHouse International Fraternity, an organization that continues to blossom across the nation on more than 30 campuses. “The agricultural students were looked down on in those early days,” Doane recalled in a 1970s interview about the fraternity’s beginnings. “Out of that came, ‘Well, it’s just a bunch of farmers,’ and that was derision — that’s the one thing you shouldn’t have said. And we said, ‘Well, we’re proud to be farmers. Let’s call ourselves farmers.’ And that’s how it came about — just that way. To make sure that they’d pick us out, we sent away and got a bunch of broad-brimmed hats — no others on the campus like it — and we were defi-

Famous Ruralist Key Points ■ D. Howard Doane’s mission was to enhance farm productivity. ■ Doane was famous for his lifetime of vision and innovations. ■ His legacy includes FarmHouse Fraternity and the Missouri 4-H Foundation. nitely stamped. But we were proud of it.” More than 30,000 initiates have followed in Doane’s FarmHouse footsteps. They include scientists, governors, congressmen, educators, businessmen and — most important to Doane — many Missouri farmers.

Business sense Doane earned a bachelor’s degree in farm management from MU in 1908 and a master’s degree in 1909. In 1910, he headed up the first college department of farm management and became Missouri’s first “county agent leader.” The agent he placed in Cape Girardeau County became the nation’s first official county agricultural agent. Doane left the university in 1916 to become a farm manager and appraiser for the Mississippi Valley Trust Co. of St. Louis. Three years later, he moved on to what he would become best known for — Doane Agricultural Services. Those services

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MISSOURI FARM BOY: D. uential D Howard Doane became one of the most infl influential agriculturalists of his time, and his legacy continues today. expanded over the years, and D. Howard Doane transformed his original one-man show into the nation’s largest farm management firm. While Doane Agricultural Services became Doane’s personal flagship, his influences and accomplishments stretched well beyond. The man who had taken such pride in his agricultural involvement as an MU student became nationally known. He authored four books on agriculture, including the first-ever farm management study in the U.S., “Farm Practices in Northeast Missouri.” A writer since his college days, when he was poultry editor of The College Farmer, Doane wrote on agricultural issues for a host of farm magazines, including his own, Doane’s Agricultural Report. Often, his articles were based on research he carried out himself, at his Grasslands Farm in Callaway County. Those efforts ranged from forages and sheep feeding to cattle crossbreeding and one of his favorite causes, grass-fed beef. On the national stage, Doane was appointed by Herbert Hoover to serve on a committee to reorganize USDA. He headed a committee appointed by Congress to study the Research and Marketing Act of 1946, as well as the National Joint Committee on Rural Credit. He was one of founders of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, as well as the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation. And when Henry Ford saw the need to broaden the use of renewable resources for industry — a movement whose value came to light when Japan cut off America’s rubber supply during World War II — Doane was one of the movers and shakers he brought to the table. Not bad for somebody who was “just a farmer.”

Building for the future Although his professional efforts were directed at helping farmers themselves, he

also had a great concern for their families. Doane took great pride in being one of the founders of the Missouri 4-H Foundation and that legacy lives on today, according to that group’s executive director, Cheryl Reams. “As the first chairman of the board of the Missouri 4-H Foundation, D. Howard Doane played a pivotal role in ensuring that resources would be available for Missouri 4-H members, volunteers and communities in the future,” she says. “Today, through the Doane Youth Center Fund established with proceeds from the Doane estate, the Missouri 4-H Foundation awards statewide annual grants to improve existing facilities owned or controlled by Missouri 4-H entities. We are proud to continue helping 4-H grow through Mr. Doane’s vision of so many years ago.” Doane’s influence on agricultural education also continues. In 1961, he donated a large portion of Grassland Farm to his alma mater. The proceeds of that gift endow the D. Howard Doane Professorship in Agricultural Economics currently held by MU livestock economist Ron Plain. Doane was also instrumental in establishing a school of agribusiness at the College of the Ozarks, which honored him by establishing a chair of agribusiness in his name. His accomplishments yielded a bumper crop of recognition, including honorary doctorates from MU, College of the Ozarks and Drury College, as well as the American Farm Bureau Federation’s highest award, the Gold Medal for Distinguished Service.

Motto to live by D. Howard Doane passed away in 1984, just few months short of his 101st birthday. More than a quarter-century later, he remains a leader that many follow, and his own words embody a philosophy that made him as productive as the Missouri soil: “Do it honestly. Do it right. You can’t go very far wrong if you follow that.” Parker writes from Parsons, Kan.