Cow chip bingo ends in moola for good causes

Senior Christina Lawton watches cow 6784 consider its next move on the Ag Quad during Alpha Zeta's Cow Chip Bingo event, May 2. Ben Timerman

By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.

Cow chip bingo, baby!

Andrew Novakovic, chairman of Cornell's Department of Agricultural, Resource and Managerial Economics, won the $50 grand prize in the ninth annual Alpha Zeta fraternity's Cow Chip Bingo event May 2 on the Ag Quad. Funds raised by the agricultural honors fraternity go to benefit the Tompkins County 4-H.

You had to watch where you walked as heifer 6784 did her duty on square number 105 -- the square Novakovic bet on -- inside a specially built pen on the quad.

When Ben Timerman '00, the fraternity's philanthopy chair, apprised Novakovic of his fortune by e-mail, the faculty member replied: "No kidding? Please convey my appreciation to the heifer who did the deed for me."

No good deed goes unturned. Novakovic plans to match the $50 prize and award an outstanding student next year in Advanced Agribusiness Management, a class taught by Brent Gloy, assistant professor of agricultural economics.