Meet the Dairy Today team
1/15/2008
Jim Dickrell was named editor of Dairy Today in 1989 and associate publisher in 2007, and is based in Monticello, Minn., northwest of Minneapolis. He has 27 years of publication experience, and also operated his family’s Wisconsin family dairy farm for three years following graduation from the University of Wisconsin—River Falls. He also holds a Masters Degree from Hamline University, St. Paul, Minn. In addition to traveling extensively within the United States covering the dairy industry, he has visited Europe, Canada and Mexico on numerous assignments for Dairy Today.
Dickrell is a past president of the National Mastitis Council, a 2,000-member research and education organization dedicated to improving milk quality around the world. He is also a past president of the American Agricultural Editors Association, an AAEA Master Writer, and winner of dozens of writing awards. He is a recipient of Mid-America Dairymen’s Salute Award for excellence in agricultural communications and Farm Journal’s Wilmer Atkinson Award.
He is actively involved in his local Lions Club and Catholic Church. He is also an avid cyclist and runner, logging some 1,200 miles annually, and a rabid, Green Packer fan and owner. He and his wife, Mary, have one daughter.
Named Dairy Today's Western editor in 2004, Catherine Merlo is based in Bakersfield, Calif. She travels widely across the United States covering national and Western issues for Dairy Today.
Merlo has more than 25 years of experience as a writer, journalist and photographer.From 1979-91, Merlo headed the communications program for Calcot, Ltd., a major cotton marketing cooperative. She then formed her own communications firm, with clients including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, CoBank, National Cooperative Bank, San Joaquin Valley Cotton Board, and the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter Task Force.
Merlo has written for Westways, Farm Journal, Progressive Farmer, Western Agricultural Publishing and California Farmer. She also authored books for Sunkist Growers, Calcot Ltd., Fillmore-Piru Citrus Association and the Arizona Cotton Growers Association. She served as editor of USDA’s Rural Cooperatives magazine from 1997-99, and is a former sportswriter for The Bakersfield Californian.
Merlo is a three-time Writer of the Year and past president of the Cooperative Communicators Association. She holds a master’s degree from the Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California, and a bachelor’s degree in English from California State University, Bakersfield.
Merlo is also a member of the American Agricultural Editors Association. She serves on the board of directors of the Kern County Museum Foundation in Bakersfield, where she lives with her husband, David, and their son, Gabriel.
Kim Watson joined Farm Journal Media in December 2007 as the Livestock Online Editor and is responsible for the electronic coverage of Dairy Today, Beef Today and Beef Business Journal. She has over 16 years of experience in agriculture writing, and her work has received awards from the American Agricultural Editors Association and Livestock Publications Council.
A Texas native, Watson received her bachelor of science degree in agricultural communications from Texas Tech University in Lubbock. She resides in San Antonio, Texas, with her two sons.
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