Ryme lwin sagriculture agent awards
A local Cass County Extension Agent of Agriculture & Natural Resources received two 1st place and three 3rd place awards for a total of five award placements in July when competing against agents in 254 Texas counties at the Texas County Agricultural Agents Association conference held in South Padre.
Agent Jessie Rymel, representing Cass County district four, said she applied for the National Association of County Agricultural Agents Communications awards with work completed in Cass County in 2022.
“I am really honored to have been chosen to represent Cass County and the District 4 County Agricultural Agents and proud to know that the work the Cass County Extension Office does for our community is meaningful,” Rymel said. “I would like to thank the county for hosting our office and enabling us to serve the citizens of Cass County.”
“I am also thankful for John Ferguson and Karen Porterfield for helping to implement educational programs in Cass County that better the lives of Texans every day,” she added.
Rymel applied for six awards and placed or won in five of the six categories. Awards were handed out at the TCAAAC in South Padre in July.
Rymel won two 1st place awards; one for Website/Online Content, and another for the Published Photograph category. The first was for her work on the department’s social media presence online.
“I used a photograph of a grapevine from T.V. Munson Memorial Vineyard,” Rymel said. “These grapevines are part of what helped to save the French wine industry.”
T.V. Munson Viticulture & Enology Center and T.V. Munson Memorial Museum are located in Denison, Texas. T.V. Munson is known affectionately as “The Grape Man of Texas”.
European vineyards lost almost 80 percent of their vines during the 1840s because of a fungus parasite, according to the museum. Initially, the wine industry imported native rootstock from the United States, but unfortunately, these brought with them a plant louse, which attacked the slowly recovering vineyards.
The museum states that the French wine industry requested Munson send some of the grape hybrid rootstock that Munson had developed during his studies in Denison.
“This rootstock was grafted with varieties of European vinifera,” according to Mumson Memorial Vinyard online. ”Because of Munson’s role, the French government in 1888 sent a delegation to Denison to confer on him the French Legion of Honor Chevalier du Merite Agricole.”
Rymel said these same rootstocks are still being used today in French wine–Currently, over 60 of the original varieties are grown in the vineyard, in addition to other hybrid and vinifera grape varieties.
Not only did Rymel win two 1st place awards in photography and in website/online content, she placed 3rd in three categories: computer-generated presentation, event promotional package, and fact sheet.
The fact sheet information she submitted detailed the different species that might be a nuisance and provided resources on who to contact in regards to trapping and hunting nuisance species.
Reports show Rymel also received the District 4 Early Career award in 2021, an award granted to an agent with less than five years experience that shows great promise.
“That was a pretty exciting thing,” Rymel said. “My job specializes in agriculture and natural resources but I also specialize in youth development.”
“I really have a soft spot for youth development,” she said.
Rymel has great compassion and dedication to her work, which covers a variety of areas. Currently, her office is working on programming for 2023 youth development and meeting with committees that offer educational programs to meet the needs of those affected by the summer drought.
“Those needs can include how to feed your cattle during a drought, things like that,” Rymel said. “We will have a forestry forum in conjunction with Marion County specifically for our timberland owners and things that they may need to know, specifically.”
Rymel said she is fond of the master gardeners classes and how they have taken off, and how the adult classes have had volunteers connecting kids to learning about gardening and growing food, heaping praise on those who volunteer to help with horticultural programs in the area.
Rymel has been a county extension agent in Cass County since 2018.
She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Sam Houston State and received her master’s degree at Stephen F. Austin State University.
Originally from Kaufman, Texas, Rymel said she enjoys living and working in Cass County and is looking forward to her office’s upcoming move to Atlanta, near Louise Street and U.S. Highway 59.
“I love it here, I love the piney woods,” Rymel said.