News

Math to multigenerational farmer

A young farmer says his drive to join his family farm has carried him through the financial barriers of getting started.

Third-generation hog producer Derrick Stalbaum tells Brownfield he spent a decade off the farm before he was able to invest in the family business.

“To me, it’s really, really important to continue the legacy that my grandparents built and I just kind of hope that continues on way past me,” he shares.

Stalbaum says his experience teaching math and personal finance has been extremely beneficial as a business owner.  In 2017, he returned to the farm in northwest Indiana to work with his dad and expand from a 3,000-head pig farm.

“Then we jumped to about 5,000 spaces and then really quickly after that, like 2020, we jumped up 10,000, and then last year we jumped up another 10,000,” he says. “We grew very quickly once we started this growth process.”

Stalbaum still uses his love for teaching by bringing the public to the farm through social media.  He goes by @PigFarmerDerrick on TikTok.

Stalbaum was recently named Farm Credit Mid-America’s Forward Thinker Award winner.

Photo courtesy of Farm Credit Mid-America.