 The breakfast each spring recognizes area young people for their
interest in continuing their education in agriculture. Recipients
are awarded cash scholarships.Though that is the business at
hand, over the years the breakfast has become a great opportunity
for the agriculture community to gather and spend time with
like-minded individuals. It is also a good time to spend getting to
know some of the local businesses that serve the agricultural
community.
Vendors this year with tables set up around the outer walls of
the room included Central Illinois Ag's precision planting program,
Edward Jones investments, Farm Mutual/Frontier Mutual Insurance,
Graue Chevrolet, Lincoln Christian University, Lincoln Daily News,
Lincoln Logan/May Enterprises and The Courier. WLCN radio of Atlanta
was also on hand with a live broadcast of the event.
The morning began with Logan County State's Attorney Jonathan
Wright delivering the invocation and guests being invited to serve
themselves from a buffet breakfast prepared by Guzzardo's.
Chamber director Andi Hake spoke briefly at the opening, thanking
everyone for coming and expressing appreciation for LCU allowing the
chamber the use of the Laughlin Center free of charge. She
acknowledged Guzzardo's and said they donate the service portion of
the meal, charging the chamber only for the actual food.
Hake also called everyone's attention to Hartsburg-Emden ag
teacher and FFA leader Betsy Pech. At the end of the school year,
Pech is retiring from her post at Hartem after 35 years. Hake talked
about the fact that in 15 years, Pech has never missed an ag
breakfast. She often arrives with a contingency of her FFA students.
Just for the record, Pech plans to continue to attend the breakfast
and other events related to ag support.
Hake also noted that many young men and women have been
influenced by Pech and that she is very well thought of in the
community.
Hake asked the members of the ag scholarship committee to stand
and be recognized.
Hake said that when the scholarship program began in 1998, the
committee had only $2,000 total to give to recipients. This year,
the committee had $18,000 to work with. She said they had decided
that beginning this year, they would make no more than eight awards
annually, which would allow them to boost the dollar figure upward
from the traditional $1,000 each of the past few years.
Hake spoke about the selection process for scholarship
recipients. She said that this year the scholarship committee had
decided to do face-to-face interviews with the applicants. The
results, she said, made the selection of eight recipients all the
more difficult.
John Klemm, who chaired the ag scholarship committee, introduced
this year's recipients: Chase Aylesworth, Cole Baker, Clayton Irwin,
Todd Irwin, Cameron Jodlowski, Evan Jodlowski, Josiah Klokenga and
Troy Rawlings. Information about the recipients can be found in an
accompanying article in today's
issue of LDN as well as in the online version of the LDN
2014 Spring Farm
Outlook magazine.
As each recipient was called forward, he took the stage and spoke
briefly about who he was, what his college major is or will be, and
also expressed appreciation to the chamber of commerce for the
scholarship.
When the recipients were all announced, John Hartman of Farm
Credit Services and also a member of the scholarship committee was
called forward to award the door prizes for the day while the
recipients posed for pictures with Hake and Klemm.
The guest speaker for the day was Abrigail Temple, a 2003
recipient of the ag scholarship and the daughter of Dave and Gail
Sasse of Beason. She is now married with two children. She and her
husband, Doug, live at Fulton and operate a hog nursery, raising
hogs from 12 pounds to 60 pounds before sending them off to a
finishing operation. She is also a research scientist for livestock
nutrition products.
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Temple divided her speech into sections, talking first about
growing up on a Logan County farm. She recalled that her best
memories were of riding in the combine with her mom at harvest.
She said she learned from her parents how to be a responsible
person by taking care of animals on the farm. She was also a
member of the local 4-H chapter, where she participated in
animal husbandry projects as well as cooking and sewing.
Temple attended the University of Illinois and received her
degree in animal science. As a student she lived in the 4-H House
Cooperative Sorority. She said she enjoyed being a part of that
sisterhood and that it was a home where everyone chipped in and did
their share of the work.
She was also a member of the collegiate livestock judging team
and was on the team the year they won the international championship
for team judging.
In her career off the farm, Temple now works in research at Agri-King,
a company founded in 1968 in Fulton. The role of the company is to
produce quality microbial and enzyme livestock additives. Temple
said the company was the first to develop feed ration testing and
develop balanced feeding programs for livestock.
She named off the many products the company manufactures,
including Tri-Lution, Zym-O-Factors, Reap, Maximizer, Ru-Mend and
Silo-King.
She noted the Tri-Lution product is one that has been developed
for livestock and is now also useful in human consumption, and she
said the company is currently working with Mayo Clinic on the uses
of the nutritional additive.
Temple shared that in the company's research they have
established three artificial rumens, which simulate the stomach of
cattle. The company has kept the rumens "alive" for 21 years now,
which she said is extraordinary. She explained how the rumens
function and how the company has been able to sustain the models for
so long.
Another piece of research Temple is involved in is growing cells
on membrane. She said the study is being used to study how drugs are
transported through an animal's system.
Temple ended by talking about Gail's Pumpkin Patch in Beason,
which is owned by her parents. She shared one trade secret with the
group, saying that when her father plants their 5 acres with 60
varieties of pumpkins, one of the biggest perils is that field mice
will eat the seeds. To help minimize this, she said her dad feeds
the mice by spreading shelled and cracked corn all around the field.
She said it has been pretty successful thus far. She also noted that
the seeds are row-cropped; which is not the standard practice, but
that in the years since they started the farm, they have never had a
failed crop.
At the end of the day, Hake came back to the stage and said she
hated to end the event on a sad note, but she had just learned that
Bill Martin, a Logan County Board member and former mayor of
Atlanta, had died Wednesday.
In remembering Martin, Hake said he had been a valuable member of
the community of Atlanta, was highly regarded on the Logan County
Board and had been an integral part of the Lincoln & Logan County
Development Partnership's work on the Comprehensive Economic
Development Strategy.
Martin was a much-loved person in Logan County, and he will be
sorely missed. (Funeral information)
With the program coming to a close, many of the guests took time
before leaving the building to acknowledge the scholarship
recipients and congratulate them for their many accomplishments thus
far.
[By NILA SMITH]
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