Dr. Chris D. Teutsch, PhD
Sessions:
Using Cover Crops to Extend the Grazing Season | MON 6:30 PM
Warm-season Annuals to Extend Summer Grazing | TUE 8:45 AM
Session A – Overview of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky | TUES 11:00 AM
Speaker Bio
Dr. Chris Teutsch grew up on a small crop and livestock farm in northeastern Ohio. After four years of military service, he was selected to represent the United States in the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program, an exchange program with Germany sponsored by the United States Congress and German Bundestag. During his year in Germany, he attended a German agricultural school and lived and worked on a dairy farm. After returning to the United States, he completed a bachelor’s and master’s degree at The Ohio State University specializing in forage management. Dr. Teutsch’s master’s research evaluated the impact of banded phosphorus applications on the ability of seedling alfalfa to withstand flooding stress. As a graduate student at The Ohio State University, he was selected as the most outstanding teaching assistant for the Department of Agronomy. After completing his Master of Science degree in 1996, he was awarded a graduate research assistantship at the University of Kentucky where he completed a Doctorate of Philosophy in forage management. His dissertation project evaluated stocking rates of cows and calves for reclaimed mine land pastures. As a graduate student at the University of Kentucky, he was selected as a Research Challenge Plant Science Fellow in the Department of Agronomy and was awarded the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation’s Memorial Scholarship.
In 2000, Dr. Teutsch was hired as an Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech’s Southern Piedmont Agricultural Research and Extension Center located outside of Blackstone, VA. In this capacity, he has developed a nationally known forage research and extension program. These programs have focused on increasing the profitably of ruminant livestock operations in Virginia by reducing the amount of conserved forage (hay) used during the summer and winter months. Dr. Teutsch was promoted to Associate Professor and tenured in the Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Department at Virginia Tech in 2006. He is an active member of the Tri-societies (American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America) where he has provided leadership as chairperson of the C-6 Forage and Grazinglands division. He is also a longtime member of the Virginia and American Forage and Grassland Councils. At the state level, he has served as an educational advisor to the Virginia Forage and Grassland Council for more than 15 years. At the national level, he has served two terms on the board of directors of the American Forage and Grassland Council.
Dr. Teutsch has received various awards for his service to the forage and livestock industry at both the state and national levels. In 2009, he received the Virginia Forage and Grassland Council’s Harlan White Distinguished Service Award for outstanding leadership and devoted service to Virginia’s forage and livestock industries. In 2011, he received the Virginia Agribusiness Council’s Extension Service Award for outstanding service to Virginia’s agribusinesses. In 2014, he received the American Forage and Grassland Council’s Merit Award for service to the organization and greater forage industry. In 2015, Dr. Teutsch received the American Forage and Grassland Council’s highest honor, the Medallion Award. This award is given to individuals that have made outstanding contributions on behalf of forages and grasslands and who have earned national recognition for work in research, teaching, extension, or industrial development.
In January 2017, Dr. Teutsch began as the new Forage Extension Specialist at the University of Kentucky’s Research and Education Center at Princeton. In this role, he has developed a research and extension program focusing on restoring pasture productivity and extending grazing in both the summer and winter months. He is also providing leadership in the newly formed Grain and Forage Center of Excellence. He is currently serving as coordinator for the UK Master Grazer Program and as an educational advisor to the Kentucky Forage and Grassland Council. Since beginning at the University of Kentucky, Dr. Teutsch has developed fencing schools that have been implemented statewide. He has also worked with his colleagues and the Kentucky Forage and Grassland Council to update the Kentucky Grazing School and expand annual grazing conferences and summer forage tours.
