More than 20 years ago, Dailey added beef reproduction to his beat, with the arrival of David Patterson from the University of Kentucky. Patterson brought the concept of fixed-time artificial insemination and creation of the Show-Me-Select Replacement Heifer Program. Dailey retired 27 years ago. But never missed a beat in reporting when hired back “half-time.” He found there are no half-time jobs, only half-pay jobs. His major beats have been forages, beef cattle and economics. All go together. Cows eat grass and make money for 38,000 Missouri farmers. From the FAPRI economic reports, he was recognized by the National Association of Agriculture Journalists, now North American Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ). He is the only reporter from a land-grant university to be selected as an honorary member. He published the group’s newsletter, back when newsletters were on paper. Meanwhile, he became an active participant in Agricultural College Editors (ACE), later Agricultural Communicators in Education and now called the Association for Communication Excellence. He is a lifetime member. He was recognized with a national Pioneer ACE award and later the top award given to ag communicators. Early, Dick Lee allowed Duane to enroll in the Missouri Photo Workshop founded by photojournalism education pioneer Cliff Edom of the MU School of Journalism. That changed his career to an emphasis on reporting with a camera. Later, he founded a version of the MPW for the American Agricultural Editors Association, the farm magazine group. That weeklong workshop for midcareer journalists ran for 11 years, with cooperation of top ag photographers and Cliff Edom. Then he was invited by Edom to the MPW, where he had started as a student. When Cliff and Vi Edom retired, they asked Bill Kuykendall, head of the MU photojournalism sequence, and Duane to be codirectors. He did that for 15 years, after serving on the MPW faculty. Since then he has been invited back to work on the daily newsletter as co-director emeritus. That week stretches of eight days. Now mostly millennials instead of mid-career photographers attend.
His first 4-H stories appeared in the Ruralist. More recently, he has had two columns a month, Foraging Ahead and Dailey Discussions. His run in that magazine has been nearly 60 years. Duane learned to write stories in 140 characters on Twitter. Not often. But his stories now appear in many electronic newsletters from farm commodity groups. In 2007, Duane was named to the Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame. Thirteen years ago, Duane received an Alumni Citation of Merit award by the MU ag alumni association. Duane is the longest standing member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia. He participates irregularly in the UU forum, the “sunday school” for the older members. His goal was to have his weekly newspaper column draft written in time to go to the forum. His column, Hometown Boy, appears in five weekly papers, down from six with the demise of the Mercer Mirror. That column ran weekly with only three misses in more than 20 years. All missed deadlines were because of being tied up in intensive care or hospital ERs. Doctor’s excuses available. Dailey met and married Shirley Jean Kiser at MU. They divorced after raising two brilliant daughters: Lucinda Ann Dailey, a librarian of Ozark, Missouri, and Janet Marie Dailey Burke, a nurse in Tampa, Florida. Dailey’s brother, Elijah, lives on the family farm in Mercer County with his wife, Donna. His sister, Deanna Kay Schreffler, lives in Des Moines, Iowa, with husband Frank. — Duane Dailey, University of Missouri Extension
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Meanwhile, on his daily beats, his stories appear in about every paper in Missouri. He has been a contributor to the Missouri Ruralist, a commercial farm magazine. For several years he was listed on
the masthead as Contributing Editor. New corporate owners removed that title, fearing it would obligate them to pay.
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