Name: Falconer, Lawrence “Larry”
Title: Professor and Extension Specialist Emeritus
Texas A&M Class: 1992
Induction: 2018
Dr. Falconer is a native of Stigler, Oklahoma and he was raised on a farming and ranching operation in the Taloka Prairie community of Haskell County, Oklahoma. Dr. Falconer’s ranching experience began early on with personal ownership of commercial stocker cattle and he began driving a rake tractor for his father and uncle’s custom hay baling operation at the age of 8.
Dr. Falconer attained both his B.S. in Agricultural Economics in 1978, and his M.S. in 1980, from Oklahoma State University. While at OSU, Dr. Falconer was a President’s Scholarship award winner, and he was awarded the Department of the Army Superior Cadet Award in 1976.
Upon graduation, Falconer worked in private industry for nine years and was responsible for timely economic analysis and forecasts in support of farming, ranching, feedlot and meat-packing operational management as well as commodity futures trading. He came to A&M to begin a Ph.D. in the Agricultural Economics department in 1989, beginning work as a Research and Extension Associate in the Agricultural Experiment Station in College Station, specifically on management and decision support tools for cattle raisers.
After receiving his Ph.D. degree in 1992, Falconer joined the Texas Agricultural Extension Service as a Farm Management Economist, working at the Corpus Christi Research and Extension Center. His programs focused on risk management for agricultural producers through economic and financial management tools and educational programs. His target audience has always been the producer with a goal of helping them improve their decision-making process through tools and information. His programs cover all topics of farm risk management, including enterprise and whole-farm budgeting and analysis, production management decisions with economic tools, risk management with marketing tools, and analysis of grower participation in crop insurance and farm program opportunities.
Dr. Falconer retired from Texas AgriLife Extension in 2012 and began work with Mississippi State University at the Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville, MS. In addition to his farm management programs, two current high-profile projects emphasize Dr. Falconer’s well-earned and highly regarded reputation. He has been working with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to evaluate the economic costs and benefits of different water conservation strategies used in agricultural irrigation. In another project, he is also working with the Mississippi Department of Revenue to maintain and improve the models used to determine land values for use in determining annual ad valorem taxes for agricultural land. In both of these projects, Dr. Falconer is working with agricultural producers, landowners, state agencies, county government officials, and regional agencies.
Dr. Falconer has received numerous awards throughout his career. He received the Epsilon Sigma Phi State Early Career Award in 2000, the TCAAA Specialist of the Year Award in 2003, and the Outstanding Contribution Award from the Turfgrass Producers of Texas in 2010. He received two SAEA Distinguished Professional Contribution Awards in 2009 and 2010. He has received five team awards, four of which were from Texas A&M University and one from USDA. In his short time at MSU, his contributions have been recognized by his receiving the Delta Council Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research in 2016 and the MSU Outstanding Extension Faculty Award in 2017. Dr. Falconer received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Agricultural Economics Association in 2017, and he was awarded Professor and Extension Specialist Emeritus status by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension in 2012.
Larry and his wife Lynda have one son, Warren, daughter-in-law Jessica, and two grandchildren, James and Violet. They plan to move to Maine to be near them upon retirement.
