John and Susan Adams of Atlanta among Prairie Farmer 2020 Master Farmers

 

[March 07, 2020] 

Five Illinois producers will be honored as 2020 Master Farmers at Prairie Farmer magazine’s annual event in Springfield, Ill., on Thursday, March 19. The award recognizes exceptional agricultural production skills, commitment to family and service to community.

The 2020 Master Farmers are:
• John and Susan Adams, Atlanta
• Dale Hadden, Jacksonville
• Ted Mottaz, Elmwood
• Joe Pickrell, Buffalo

“The Master Farmer award is Illinois agriculture’s lifetime achievement award,” said Holly Spangler, Prairie Farmer editor. “These farmers are at the top of their game, and this award is based on their entire body of work in the field, in the family, and in the community.”

Prairie Farmer first offered the Master Farmer award 95 years ago, in 1925. Editors have continued the tradition annually since 1968, following a pause initially caused by the Depression. When Editor Clifford Gregory established the Master Farmer program, he felt the award would help give farm people a greater sense of “pride and permanence.” Nearly 350 Illinois producers have been inducted as Master Farmers or Honorary Master Farmers over the program’s history.

Candidates are nominated by farmers, neighbors, agribusiness leaders and farm organizations throughout the state. Judges for the 2020 awards were Karen Corrigan, McGillicuddy Corrigan Agronomics; Ed McMillan, University of Illinois Board of Trustees; Linnea Kooistra, 2011 Master Farmer; Steve Myers, Busey Ag Services; Dwight Raab, First Midwest Bank; and Holly Spangler, Prairie Farmer editor.

Some Master Farmers serve in state and national farm leadership positions. Others chair prestigious boards or serve with honor at the highest levels of government. Still others build their farms or businesses to regional or national prominence.

However, all serve their communities – building churches, chairing little-known but important committees, organizing harvest for a stricken neighbor – and continuing the service-minded commitment that earned them the Master Farmer distinction in the first place.

“Every year, we pour through pages and pages of applications that document a lifetime of work. We sift until we find the very best Illinois farmers – the people who raise good crops and even better families, and who build their communities all along the way,” said Spangler. “These Master Farmers are leveraging every ounce of skill they have for the greater good.”

Prairie Farmer is published 12 times a year for Illinois farm families. Established in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published farm periodical in the United States. GROWMARK, Inc., is a financial sponsor of the award. Like the Master Farmer award, the GROWMARK system was born during the 1920s, when farmer cooperatives first organized the Illinois Farm Supply Co. Today, the brand is known as FS.

To nominate a farmer for the 2020 Master Farmer award, email holly.spangler@ farmprogress.com or go to www. farmprogress.com/prairie-master-farmer.

JOHN AND SUSAN ADAMS: READY TO SERVE

John and Susan Adams are well known faces in the Illinois agriculture industry, as the 2020 Master Farmer couple have collectively stepped up for leadership roles dozens of times.

They met while attending Southern Illinois University Carbondale and moved back to John’s family farm in Atlanta, Ill., in 1972. While Susan grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, she also has roots in farming, and continues to own 87 acres of family ground in Gallatin County. Together, they’ve grown the Atlanta farmstead to 970 acres since taking it over full time when John’s father retired in 1982.

“My dad and I had a small farrow-to-finish hog operation. And then Susan jumped right in,” John says, noting she worked as a teacher for the first year she lived in Atlanta before becoming much more involved in the farm.

“Susan and I both enjoyed raising hogs, but it kind of limited our vacation time and ability to participate in ag leadership positions. We dropped the hogs in 1988 and started to get more involved and go on more trips,” he adds.

The couple have traveled to 42 states and 20 foreign countries. Often they left home to represent Illinois growers and livestock producers, passing by IL Corn ads that featured their faces in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. They served on the Corn Farmers Coalition national organization for five years, dedicating time to teaching policymakers about agriculture.

For someone who admits, “the only thing I ever raised were hamsters” before coming to John’s family farm, Susan says she was quick to learn about livestock management. She’s now the primary grain hauler and grain dryer operator.

“I don’t have to be quite as active as I used to since we’ve been full no-till since 1988. John does all the planting and bookkeeping, but I keep things moving during harvest,” Susan says.

John and Susan were nominated by IL Corn.

DALE HADDEN: MOVING THE NEEDLE

When Dale Hadden started farming in 1987, he was trading labor for equipment on 315 acres with his dad and grandpa.

Today, the 2020 Master Farmer operates Hadden Farms with his wife, parents and brothers, raising corn, soybeans and cattle on nearly 7,000 acres near Jacksonville. But it hasn’t been easy, and diversification has been key.

Diversification has meant harvesting and selling 15,000 small square hay bales and 900 round bales each year. Dale also took over the family Pioneer seed dealership, started by his grandfather Bill in 1974. They’ve sold Apache and Palco cattle equipment since 1999, and this year, they added a cover crop and small-seed business

The Hadden family also believes in telling their story, hosting 550 to 600 grade schoolers every spring as part of the Agriculture in the Classroom program. Each family member staffs one of 10 interactive learning stations ranging from combines to chickens and other livestock.

Dale and wife Amy have two children, Blake, 19, and Paige, 17.

“Both children have followed their parents’ example and are hard workers and dedicated volunteers to the community — especially the Morgan County Fair,” says Jay Harris, president of the Morgan County Fair Association. “Dale and his family spend many late nights at the fair setting up events and helping other 4-H’ers prepare their livestock and projects for competition.”

Dale says efficiency and conservation go hand in hand on their no-till soybeans and strip-till corn operation. Pastures are split into paddocks so they can rotationally graze their cattle, putting them in heavy-use areas for watering while fencing off ditches to reduce runoff.

“I am a firm believer in keeping every particle of soil on our ground and out of the water source,” says Dale, who’s served on the Nutrient Research and Education Committee, or NREC, since it was signed into law in 2012.

Dale was nominated by 2001 Master Farmer Philip Nelson.

TED MOTTAZ: TRAINING THEM UP

Ted Mottaz has a reputation around Elmwood, Ill., for good yields, born of the kind of acre-by-acre attention that pays off for the land itself. It’s a reflection of his entire farming philosophy: “Productivity. Innovation. Stewardship,” Ted says.

Ted and his wife, Janet, farm in partnership with his brother, Jeff Mottaz, in southeastern Knox County, raising corn and soybeans on 1,500 acres. And while each are interested in all parts of the operation, their partnership works because they’ve divided duties and learned to trust each other’s judgment and expertise.

Ted began his career off the farm teaching agriculture but rented 80 acres in 1983 while teaching ag at Carl Sandburg College. “The first year I started farming was a drought year – and my 80 acres of corn averaged 97 bushels,” Ted recalls. He traded labor for equipment and five years later, bought his first farm – 260 acres – with his father and brother.

Knox County farmer Tim Main says, “So many great things have been accomplished under Ted’s leadership, but the one I remember most is his contagious passion and commitment.” Indeed, Ted’s been elected president of most everything, from the Knox County Soil and Water District to the National Council for Ag Education.

Most recently, Ted served as president of IL Corn in 2019, and has been widely recognized for his ability to build consensus and get things done. “I try to build interaction,” Ted says. “Converse and debate and bring in experts.”

And back on the farm? “I try to get people to see both sides, to look forward and don’t dwell on what happened in 1982. Bring everybody together. No secrets.”

Ted and Janet have two children and 7 grandchildren. He was nominated by his niece Sarah Grant, McDonough County Farm Bureau manager.

JOE PICKRELL: MAKING IT WORK

From his ag teacher days all the way to securing a legacy for his sons as the 6th generation on a family farm homesteaded back in 1854, Joe Pickrell’s been “making things work” for a long time.

“Whether it’s dealing with the challenges of farming, or committing time to make meaningful impacts on the organizations he’s involved with, or just squeezing in time to watch a couple innings of his son’s baseball game during planting, Dad has always found a way to make it work,” says son Jason Pickrell.

Joe often made it look effortless - but Jason knows better.

“No one has this much ‘luck’ in their life,” he says. “It takes a tremendous amount of knowledge, determination and effort to ‘make things work.’”

With his wife Marilyn, Joe has grown a farm from 640 to 3,600 acres across four counties. He’s also volunteered all across the community, state and nation, and spent 40 years directing the boards of a growing FS cooperative. They’ve raised three children on the farm and added a sheep herd when the kids were in 4-H. Joe became a premier breeder and leader – again, making it work.

Agricultural roots run deep in the 6-generation farm family, and Joe Jr. once informed his kindergarten teacher, “I want to be a farmer, just like my dad.” Today, it’s a reality as Joe Jr. and Jason both farm with their dad, forming an LLC in 2001 with Joe Sr.’s siblings.

All family land is in the LLC and they’ve developed a financial plan to pass the farm to the next generation. Marilyn has long handled the farm books, working with FBFM as well. Their daughter Michele and her husband have chosen to invest in farmland, playing an important role in the family farm.

Joe was nominated by his children, Michele, Joe and Jason.

About Prairie Farmer and Farm Progress

Prairie Farmer (www.PrairieFarmer.com) is the local production information authority for farmers across the state of Illinois. It has evolved from a regional publication to a state-specific publication with national reach.

Today, Prairie Farmer is a Farm Progress (www.FarmProgress.com) brand and part of a group of 17 state and regional information resources, national ag content brands, events and more agricultural and related industry information resources. Farm Progress Show, the nation's largest outdoor farm show, is one of its world class events. Farm Progress Show is hosted by Prairie Farmer and Indiana Prairie Farmer when the event is held in Illinois and by Wallaces Farmer when the event is held in Iowa. The 2020 Farm Progress Show will be held September 1-3 in Boone, Iowa.

Farm Progress is the largest most diversified agriculture information business in North America. Through a robust network of live events, digital products, data, marketing services, broadcasting and publications, Farm Progress is connected to nearly all of the nation's most economically significant farmers, growers and ranchers. This comprises nearly 80% of the 2.2 million farms and ranches in the U.S., and an estimated 85% of the nation's annual agricultural gross domestic product.

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[Holly Spangler]