Special Report

Star Farmer began career at age eight

The FFA American Star Farmer has a drive to farm. Tyler Loschen farms in Northwest Illinois and does not come from a family farming background. In high school, Loschen began by farming 20 acres that he cash rented from a parcel his parents bought as an investment. Then a landlord, anxious to get a young farmer on his 160 acres, made a lease agreement with the then 16-year-old young man. Loschen remains grateful and aims to pay the favor forward.

“I’m hoping that as my FFA career kind of winds to an end that I can hopefully take some of my experiences and give back to those other students and hopefully inspire them to go ahead and grab ahold of something in FFA and to take them to places that they’d never dreamed possible,” he said.

Loschen recently bought another 40 acres to bring his farming acreage to about 400. Until he can assemble enough to farm full-time, he plans to use his college degree in the seed business.

Loschen recalled taking center stage at the National FFA Convention in disbelief about being named American Star Farmer.

“I know when I was standing up there and all my competitors, their videos, and I realized how competitive and how great it was just to be a finalist and then to named the winner is truly just a wonderful experience,” he said.

Before he was in FFA, Loschen began his career at age eight in 4-H with two bred gilts and a Simmental bred heifer.

AUDO: Tyler Loschen (3 min. MP3)