2020 Spring Farm Outlook

2020 Logan County Farm Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March 19, 2020 Page 33 for a year working before realizing she wanted to come home to her roots. “We don’t realize, even though we live in a small town or a smaller area, that we still have an impact on agriculture, and the outside world doesn’t know the things that we know,” she said. It was eye-opening for her to learn in college that not everyone knows where their food comes from. Coers said, “We know where our beef comes from. We know where all of our food comes from. Showing (people) the importance of agriculture was really cool for me.” When Coers joined CIA she was excited to bring her graphic knowledge to the equipment dealer, “I applied all of my schooling, and then my background of the rural lifestyle, to how you talk to farmers.” Dawn Irwin also has a passion for Agriculture that led her to CIA. Irwin, a 2017 graduate of Lincoln Community High School is the Marketing Intern at CIA. Irwin grew up in Beason on a fifth generation grain and dairy farm. Currently her dad, grandpa and brother work on the farm. “My whole life I’ve helped out on the farm, whether it was with the cows, baling hay or riding in the tractors,” said Irwin. “I always knew I wanted to stay in agriculture. I was in 4-H and FFA. That led me to Ag Communications. I knew I wanted to be in Marketing Ag, talking and educating people.” The changing roles for women in agriculture Irwin said, “There are so many more opportunities now, like in dealerships, and all different aspects of agriculture that are not necessarily hands-on on the farm.” When it comes to gender, Coers noted, “in the Ag Business industry it’s less about males and females.” In 2013, “We would go to the Yield 360 meetings and things like that, and I would be the only girl. Now I don’t even see it because the guys don’t treat you any different. They treat you as a person.” “Dawn and I just did an interesting article on my Grandma Dittus, which was super-cool,” Coers said. “I knew she worked on the farm, but I didn’t know everything she did. She was hardly ever in the kitchen. She was out on the farm and her favorite seat was in the grain truck.” That was the 1950s and her grandma viewed herself as just another person on the farm helping to get the job done. “I felt like that was cool because it was so different back then. Today we all view men and women the same. If you’re 21, go get your CDL,” Coers said. “A lot of wives, if their husbands are farmers, it’s kind of just their lifestyle to go out and help them too,” added Irwin. “They don’t necessarily see being a woman in ag as really rare, it’s just what they do.” Continue 4