News

New Century Farmer conference

Young people from across the nation are gathering in central Iowa next week to participate in a conference that emphasizes succession planning.

National FFA program coordinator Lindsey Calhoun says 33 college students planning to enter production agriculture were selected for the New Century Farmer program to be held on the DuPont Pioneer campus in Johnston.

She tells Brownfield Dr. Ron Hansen from the University of Nebraska has been invited back to talk about transitioning the farm to the next generation.

“It’s that eye-opening thing where you might have a thought on how you’re going to get handed the farm or ranch, and in reality you have to have that hard conversation.  And it can be hard to sit down and talk with the grandparents or the parents.”

Farm financing, global markets, demographic trends and risk management are other topics that will be addressed during the week-long conference that ends July 16^th.

Calhoun says the New Century Farm participants went through an application process.

“They also submit a resume as well as answer four or five essay questions.  Once the application process is closed, we then go into an internal review where we try to get our numbers down to the top 80.  And those are then sent out to be judged by our program sponsors.”

Those sponsors include DuPont Pioneer, Case IH, CSX Corporation and Farm Credit.

New Century Farmer participants from Brownfield states include:

-Minnesota: Alex Heldt of Watertown, Asa Nelson of Tracy and Mary Sara Sauber of Motley

-Indiana: Riley Lewis (didn’t list a hometown in press release)

-Iowa: David Turnis of Bernard

-Missouri: Cara Fordyce of Maryville

-Nebraska: Morgan Cuttlers of Raymond

-Ohio: Andrew Armstrong of South Charleston, Matthew Klopfenstein of Haviland, Michael Kramer of Wapakoneta, Jenna Lee of Marysville, Abigail Motter of Mansfield, Madison Sheahan of Curtice and Austin Wippel of Orient

-South Dakota: Kaden Eisenbraun of Wall

-Wisconsin: Matt Kortbein of Warrens