Jim Beatty was born in Baton Rouge and grew up in New Roads, LA where he graduated from high school at St. Joseph Academy. His high school activities included Beta Club President, Senior Class President and he earned letters in football and basketball.

After high school graduation, Jim entered the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette and graduated in 1965 with a B.S. degree in Animal Science. While at USL he served a term as President, College of Agriculture Student Association and was active in Gamma Sigma Delta.

In 1965 Jim entered graduate school in the Department of Dairy Science at Louisiana State University and completed the M.S. degree in 1967 and Ph.D. degree in 1971 in the field of Dairy Physiology.

Dr. Beatty was employed in 1971 by Mississippi State University at the Holly Springs North Mississippi Branch Experiment Station as the Dairy'Project Leader. In 1973 Dr. Beatty was hired as Dairy Project Leader at the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station in Jeanerette.

In 1975 Dr. Beatty transferred to Baton Rouge where he served as an Extension Dairyman with the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service until 1988. During this time, Dr. Beatty was manager of the state Dairy Herd Improvement Program and provided leadership in all aspects of dairy farm operations.

In 1988, Dr. Beatty was appointed as Resident Director, Southeast Research Station in Franklinton. During his tenure he saw many changes at the station including major construction of a milking parlor and a lagoon system for waste disposal. Dr. Beatty played a major role in obtaining a $2 million state and federal grant to help fund the new construction at the Southeast Research Station.

More recently Dr. Beatty has been very active in the area of milk pricing. He has represented the Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and has testified before Congressional Committees that were studying milk pricing.

Dr. Beatty retired in 2002 and is currently a Dairy Nutrition Consultant with Purina Mills. He is a member of the Louisiana Cattleman's Association and Louisiana Dairy Fieldman's Association.

Dr. Beatty and his wife Christine are the parents of three children; Christine Beatty Navarre, Jim Jr. and Bryan. Jim and Christine have two grandchildren, Beau Navarre, 6 years and Jim Beatty III, 7 weeks of age. 

     Mr. Ernest Winfrey was born in Konawa, Oklahoma. As a young child he helped milk cows on the family farm and his family moved to the city during World War II. After the war the family moved to Henderson, Texas where he milked a cow twice daily for family usage. At the age of nine he started working on a Webb's Dairy milk truck in Henderson, Texas from 2:00 a.m. until school time.

     Mr. Winfrey graduated from Henderson High School in 1951. Following high school he attended Tyler Junior College and then went to North Texas State University where he graduated with a B.S. degree in 1956. He played varsity football for Tyler Junior College and North Texas State University.

While attending college Mr. Winfrey worked for Hygeia Dairy and following graduation his first job was with Hygeia Dairy, now part of Dean Foods. His duties with the dairy was Route Supervision with a subsequent promotion to Sales Manager.

His next job in the dairy industry was with Southland Corporation where he worked with Oak Farms Cabell for twenty six years. In 1974 Mr. Winfrey came to Louisiana as Zone Manager with Mid-West Farms.

Mr. Winfrey joined Foremost Dairy, Shreveport, LA in 1985 as Division Manager and is currently the President and General Manager of Foremost Dairy and Senior Vice President of the Louisiana-Mississippi Group.

Mr. Winfrey's reflections on the dairy industry include the following:

• In his career, the only milk available at first was raw milk, then Grade A pasteurized with cream line and later homogenized. He has seen shelf life go from 3 days to 18-20 days.
• The largest supermarket in town was Safeway with a buildup of 8 quarts of milk with no gallons or half gallons. Most people took home delivery.
• He has seen transportation of milk go from ice on milk cases to Thermo-King units on trucks - from vans to tractor trailers. Other changes were from small dairy plants in every town to plants hundreds of miles apart. In his career Mr. Winfrey has seen 20 plus dairy plants close in a 200 mile radius of Shreveport.
• Health rules and regulations have gone from a few to our current system. Great improvements on dairy farms and plants have been observed.
• Mr. Winfrey has seen many changes in the last 50 years and his belief is that through education and technology we will see many more in the future.

The Winfreys are currently residing in Bossier City, LA where they attend the First Baptist Church.

Mr. Winfrey enjoys all sporting events as well as fishing and playing golf.

He is a past member of the Texas Dairy Association Board and currently a board member and President of the Louisiana Dairy Products Association.

He is a supporter of the LSU Dairy Alumni Association Scholarship Benefit Golf Tournament (also known as the Le Lait Golf Classic) and the Department of Dairy Science. Mr. Winfrey is always willing to assist the LSU Department of Dairy Science when called upon.