The National Hay Association proudly congratulates Dr. Garry Lacefield as the recipient of the Haymaker Award.  The award honors members who show outstanding service, dedicated leadership, generous contribution, exceptional performance or inspiring commitments to the NHA and the hay industry.  It is the highest honor that a NHA member can receive.   

A native of the western Kentucky coal field area, Dr. Garry Lacefield is a leader in Kentucky's forage livestock industry. The McHenry (Ohio County) native spent two and one-half years in Germany in the U.S. Army before entering Western where he received his B.S. and M.S. degrees with a major in Agriculture and Biology in 1970. After graduating from Western, Dr. Lacefield attended the University of Missouri where he completed Ph. D. requirements in 1974 and joined the University Kentucky staff as Extension Forage Specialist. Lacefield has authored and coauthored more than 300 extension publications, papers, articles and book chapters and is coauthor of the books, Southern Forages and a recently released book, The Wonder Grass. Dr. Lacefield emphasizes the "team approach" in his forage extension programs and has traveled to lecture in Japan, China, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Canada, Argentina and Canada.

Dr. Lacefield is Professor Emeritus of The University of Kentucky and has written articles and taught many programs for the National Hay Association.  The National Hay Association proudly presented the Haymaker of the Year Award to Dr. Lacefield at their 124^th Annual Convention Banquet held at Grand Traverse Resort in Traverse City, Michigan.

The Haymaker of the Year Award was created and sponsored by Kemin Industries in the early 1980′s  Members were asked for nominations at the awards banquet annually.  In the early 1990′s, the NHA Board of Directors created the Haymaker Award Committee to continue the tradition.