Guided by his principle to “respect the past, look to the future,” Dale Parker stepped into his role as the Tennessee Cattlemen’s Association’s (TCA) Executive Vice President (EVP) in November 2025.

Parker says he sees his new responsibility as having a clear mission.

“It’s my job to serve Tennessee cattle producers, strengthen membership, and position the association for continued growth and success in the years to come.”

With deep agricultural roots, decades of professional leadership experience, and a clear commitment to serving cattle producers across the state, Parker comes to the role with energy, humility, and a strong focus on the membership, say TCA officials.

He has a lifetime of experience in the cattle industry, combined with more than 25 years in sales and business development across the flooring and medical device industries.

TCA President Gary Dering says this blend of industry knowledge and professional business expertise positions him to immediately focus on membership growth, legislative advocacy, and producer outreach.

As EVP, Parker will lead all operations of the organization, with a core emphasis on engaging members, meeting directly with producers, managing legislative priorities, and developing strong programs for Tennessee’s commercial and seedstock cattlemen. His vision for TCA is rooted in grassroots leadership and the belief that the cattle industry is fundamentally a “people business.”

Dering expressed confidence and enthusiasm in Parker’s appointment, calling him “a true Tennessee success story.”

“Dale’s dedication as a cattle producer, his proven business acumen, and his servant leadership,” make him the ideal candidate for this position,” he says. “Dale understands both the challenges and the opportunities facing cattle producers today.”

A native of Warren County, Tennessee, Parker remains closely connected to the land and lifestyle that define the state’s cattle industry. He is a member of both White Warren Farmers and Rutherford Farmers Cooperatives. He and his two brothers, Denton and Thomas Parker, own and operate a commercial cattle farm with Angus and Simmental influence. He is one of five children, supported by a close-knit family that includes two sisters, Brenda and Lynn. His deep roots in production agriculture shape his understanding of the industry and strengthen his connection with the producers TCA represents.

A symbiotic relationship We have also learned that many types of soil bacteria have a symbiotic relationship with plants. One type of bacteria in particular, plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), colonizes plant roots and has a mutually beneficial relationship with plants where the plants excrete sugars as a food source for the bacteria and in return, the bacteria enhance plant growth and stress tolerance by producing organic acids and enzymes to better solubilize phosphorus and other nutrients. They also produce phytohormones that stimulate root growth and improve water uptake, among other things.

We can help stimulate our soil’s native population of PGPR and we can also add the beneficial bacteria straight to our source of nutrients. PowerCoat®, from Mosaic, is a microbial fertilizer coating that can be applied directly to granular fertilizer. It is a very stable product, with a shelf life of 18 months, that contains select strains of Bacillus bacteria (PGPR) that remain dormant in spore form until they are introduced to conditions that are favorable to propagation and will then begin to colonize on the plant’s roots.

Among the many things we can do to help our soil’s microbiological activity is supply a good food source - carbon, which helps to stimulate growth and the metabolic activity of beneficial soil microorganisms. The easiest way to do this is by adding a humate product, such as HumikONE from HGS BioScience into our granular fertilizer mixes. These are granular products that solubilize in the soil. Along with the enhancing the soil’s microbiological activity, adding humic substances to the soil helps to increase a soil’s cation exchange capacity (CEC)- the ability to hold on to nutrients and helps to chelate nutrients - protect them from loss or tie-up and increase their mobility in the soil for better uptake by plants. Protection from environmental loss Along with proper management practices, making sure as much of our applied fertilizers as possible are available to be utilized by plants can reduce the loss of fertilizer to the environment, such as with phosphorus runoff or the volatilization or “gassing off” of nitrogen into the atmosphere. This is not only detrimental to the environment but also very costly.

We have talked about how to protect phosphorus from tie-up and how to increase its availability through stimulating soil biology but let’s quickly talk about nitrogen.

Due to logistics, ease of application and price, most of the nitrogen in our area is applied in granular form as urea. But since urea is mostly applied to the top of soil, it is the most prone to environmental loss. Soil biology plays a pivotal role in this process as well.

Urea in itself is not directly absorbed by the plant in large quantities and relies on soil biological activity to transform it into plant available forms such as ammonium and nitrate. The soil microbiology is doing us a favor here but during this transformation is where we are most concerned with loss through volatilization.

When soil applied urea encounters moisture it dissolves. The dissolved urea is broken down by an enzyme in the soil, called urease, in a process called urea hydrolysis. During this process, urea is converted into ammonia and carbon dioxide. Most of the ammonia reacts with water to form ammonium and can then be taken up by the plant roots or continue to be transformed into nitrate through other soil biological activities.

The problem is, this process can happen too quickly, while the urea is still on the soil surface, whereas the urea is going through this process and gets to the ammonia stage, it can gas off and be lost to the atmosphere.

How do we stop this? By using urease inhibitors such NBPT- N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide. This stabilizer helps to slow down the hydrolysis of urea in the soil, therefore slowing down the conversion to ammonia and allowing the urea to diffuse further into the soil profile before conversion.

GreenPoint Ag’s nitrogen stabilizer OnPoint (NBPT) incorporates this urease inhibitor technology to better protect the applied nitrogen.

It’s important to remember that fertilizer enhancers, stabilizers, biologicals, and biostimulants are not silver bullets. They don’t replace the need for a solid soil fertility program or good agronomic decisions. But they are valuable tools for getting more out of what we already do. That’s especially important in a market where every input dollar needs to pull its weight.