A Shot of AG
Heather Hampton-Knodle | Leadership
Season 6 Episode 11 | 27m 58sVideo has Closed Captions
Community can really help shape who you become.
Heather grew up on a farm near Windsor, IL, and after earning an Ag Journalism degree from U of I, she and her late husband raised corn, soybeans, wheat and Angus cattle in Fillmore. Deeply community-minded, she served on the Governor’s Rural Affairs Council and chaired the Montgomery County Economic Development Committee.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
A Shot of AG is a local public television program presented by WTVP
A Shot of AG
Heather Hampton-Knodle | Leadership
Season 6 Episode 11 | 27m 58sVideo has Closed Captions
Heather grew up on a farm near Windsor, IL, and after earning an Ag Journalism degree from U of I, she and her late husband raised corn, soybeans, wheat and Angus cattle in Fillmore. Deeply community-minded, she served on the Governor’s Rural Affairs Council and chaired the Montgomery County Economic Development Committee.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch A Shot of AG
A Shot of AG is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(bold upbeat music) ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag."
I'm your host, Rob Sharkey.
Farming is a full-time job.
I should know, I do it.
But some farmers, they go way above and beyond, giving their time and leadership, volunteer.
Our guest today is a perfect example of that.
Heather Hampton-Knodle.
How ya doing, Heather?
- Doing well, thank you.
- Yeah, you are from Fillmore?
- Fillmore is our home address.
Yes.
- So for the people in Peoria, where is Fillmore?
- Montgomery County, Illinois.
So about two hours southeast of Peoria.
- So you had a drive this morning, didn't you?
- I did, but, you know, I had a double shot of espresso, so watch out.
(cards tapping) - Was there anything else in the shot?
- There was... (chuckles) - 'Cause that helps me.
- Actually 30 grams of protein, so I felt like I just had a steak with my espresso.
- You had one of those, huh?
- Yes.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
- Was it uh, one of those Scooter's?
I like those.
- No, actually, there's a little coffee shop in Nokomis, called Honey Mugs.
- Oh.
- And this is a specialty drink called the Tara Special.
And the namesake was actually in the coffee shop when I walked in, 'cause I normally don't get coffee.
I was having that kind of a morning.
And so I almost had her sign my cup.
I'm like, "Oh, my gosh!"
- Well don't they do that at Starbucks and that?
Put your name on there?
- Well, no, I mean her name on my cup, 'cause it was named after her.
- Oh, I gotcha.
I'm like, "I need your autograph."
- Honey what?
- Well, Honey Mugs is the coffee shop.
- Honey Mugs.
(bell dings) - Honey Mugs.
(Heather laughs) - That sounds naughty.
- (laughs) No, it's actually inspired by a scripture from Psalms, so (chuckles) I don't think - Maybe not so much!
- they did it that way.
(both laughing) - Moving on!
You are a farmer.
- Yes.
- You grew up on a farm.
- Yes.
- So at multi-generation, what generation are you?
- I am at least sixth and my husband was seventh and our sons are eighth.
- Okay.
- From, from his bloodline.
- So who's all farming today?
- Myself and my three sons and then a brother-in-law and his, and our nephew helps us seasonally.
And my mother-in-law, I still consult with her, as she is one of our landowners.
We just finalized a lease.
- Okay.
- Yesterday.
Yes.
So, and then my dad's still farming and raising Angus cattle with my brother as well.
- Mm-hmm.
Your husband sadly passed away.
- He did.
- Yeah, so, but it was nice that the, you know, the farm continued.
But this was your family's farm, correct?
- Actually, this is his family's farm that my sons and I are now, well, and actually, it's actually the farm that my husband and I have grown because he, and then we rent from in-laws, but he started farming basically on his own independently, even as a junior in college.
- Oh wow.
- Yes.
And then has really grown from there, but had a very good foundation, in terms of work ethic and support from his family.
- Well that's nice that the family can all still be around each other, and that, - Yes.
(laughs) - yeah, that's great.
- I'm not sure.
At 11:00 last night, as we were looking at fertilizer prices didn't feel quite so warm and fuzzy, but we're gonna get there.
- My salesman has called me like, three times, and I have yet to call him back.
I'm sure the pre-prices are out.
- Book now.
Yes, yes.
- Is it as bad as they say?
- It's bad.
- Oh.
(laughs) - It's the, we're gonna keep smiling, and talk about positive things today, yeah.
(Rob laughs) - Went to U of I?
- I did, and Nottingham, England for a year.
- Oh, tell me about that.
- Well, I chose U of I, 'cause they had the most international exchange programs of any university in the country at the time.
And we knew I wanted to study abroad.
So my junior year I was at University of Nottingham, England and made sure that all of my courses would transfer.
So Russian language is like, my minor.
- Really?
- Yeah, in area studies.
It's equivalent of a minor.
- Why'd you go with Russian?
- I just thought it was interesting.
That's a good question.
- You're watching like, movies in the '80s and they're always the enemy.
(Heather laughs) - Yeah, right.
I don't know, I think it's fascinating.
Their culture's fascinating, and it's, it's complicated grammatically, but it's really phonetic.
Once you learn the alphabet, boom.
You figure it out.
- Well they're always drinking vodka, so.
- (laughs) Yeah.
- I don't think it really matters, yeah.
- Yeah.
(speaking in a foreign language) - Okay.
- (speaking in a foreign language), I'll see you under the table.
That's a toast.
- Oh.
(both laughing) Well, I always wondered that, but I can't speak another language, but like, I've heard from people that say, "Well, you'd never forget it."
And I've heard from people that say, you know, "If you don't speak it for a few years, you kinda lose it."
- Ah.
- What's your thoughts?
- I've seen it go both ways.
I think there are certain terms that will embed themselves in your mind.
Like anything, you know, if you have some emotional connection to it.
'Cause I studied Spanish in high school and can remember just enough to maybe read a menu and get to the beach, right?
(laughs) (speaking in a foreign language) Uh, (speaking in a foreign language).
Like anybody goes to the library.
I don't know.
But if you needed a library, - That's the most random thing.
- I could get you there.
(both laughing) - What did you want to do when you were going to college?
I mean, what was the plan?
- Wow.
A lot of people said, "Are you gonna be the next Colleen Callahan?"
'Cause Colleen had worked with WNBD here in Peoria.
- [Rob] 'Cause you were in journalism.
- For years.
I did end up in journalism.
- Okay.
- I, yeah.
So I exempted outta chemistry, and I exempted outta foreign languages, and I really think I probably should have studied those two.
- [Rob] Wow.
Chemistry's stupid.
- Right?
(laughs) - Yeah.
- It's so foundational though.
But all of my aptitude tests said communications, communications.
Like, "Okay, fine."
So I ended up in, it was agriculture, but journalism, and thought I was gonna go into advertising, 'cause I wanted to know what made people tick.
I had my first advertising class.
Hated it.
- Really?
It wasn't for you?
- So I thought, "I think I'll become a truth-seeker instead," so then journalism it was, news editorial, yeah.
- And that's the truth.
- (laughs) And nothing but the truth.
That's right.
Just the facts, ma'am.
- Well, when you graduated, then what did you do?
- I started work with Illinois Pork Producers, and then within about two years I started my own business.
And then that quickly led to association management.
So I managed groups like the Upper Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri Rivers Association.
- Oh, I gotcha.
- I could talk Hy-Poxy all day long.
(laughs) - Yeah.
(laughs) - But I won't.
And Illinois Association of Drainage Districts, the Temporary Wheat Development Board, and so on.
Those are some of my clients.
And then I- - I mean, how do you... Boards are so weird, right?
- Yeah.
- Because sometimes you can get the, I don't, the personalities on there fascinate me.
But you were an expert in making them all, at least go to the same place.
- I don't know about expert, but learned a lot as I went.
And what I loved about the association piece, and having my own shop, was I had so much variety.
So I could work on policy issues, state and federal.
Which by the way, I hated civics and I hated political science as courses.
Like, I mean, I did well in civics, but Poly Sci in college, I was like, meh.
I didn't like, didn't like it.
- But your dad was... - Well he later became director after, that was, I mean, that's when I was out.
I had my own business and.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
Director of agriculture, that is.
But we'd both been active in our own tracks and fields.
- But it wasn't his example that led you to that, 'cause he hadn't, he really hadn't gone that route yet.
- Well, no, he hadn't been in policy.
- Okay.
- Other than... No, but he'd been a volunteer and been on trade missions.
I think that's what led to my interest in international things.
And he and Mom were stationed in Germany and, - Oh yeah?
- that's kind of a little bit of what's in the surprise here.
- Ah, can we talk about it?
'Cause here's what happens, folks.
Emily, my wife says, "Hey, bring something on the desk, and we'll talk about it."
You bring this in and I go to grab it, and you're like, "No, it's a surprise."
(Heather laughs) So I don't know what's - I think you're afraid.
- in there.
- It's not one of those little pinochle snake things that pops out.
That's not it.
- Is it, is it alive?
- No.
Nope.
But the bag itself is that, you know, you asked how do you, boards are hard, and how do you pull people together?
And one of the funest boards... So I also helped found a public private economic development corporation, a countywide effort.
- Okay.
- And we did a lot of things.
And then later people asked me to run for county board, that had not been on my agenda at all.
(Rob laughs) It did.
I ended up being elected.
Yay, thank you, Montgomery County, (laughs) and served- - Was that a good thing?
- Overall, yes, 'cause I had, you know, I had my checklist of these are things I'd like to get done.
I'm not gonna be a lifer, and we got it done.
- No, you're supposed to be on there for 30, 40 years.
- No, I didn't get that memo, or I didn't.
(Rob laughs) I chose not to read it.
But starting an entrepreneurship program was one of my goals.
- Okay.
For the county.
- Yeah.
And so, it's still going today.
And I've been off the board now for almost 10 years.
But this brown bag.
- Yes.
- Do you wanna hear about the brown bag?
- I would love to hear about this sack.
- (laughs) It's the brown bag.
- Okay.
- Alright.
So the short version, creating entrepreneurial opportunities, our CEO started in Effingham County about three years before we were starting ours.
Roughly, or researching it.
And one of the stories behind it was there was a high school student at Effingham, either St.
Anthony or the public school, who saw his mom cleaning out her basement.
And he said, "What are you gonna do with all that stuff?"
She goes, "You mean this crap, what am I gonna do with this crap?"
And he said, "Yeah."
She goes, "I don't know.
I'm probably gonna sell it, give it away."
He goes, "Huh."
So he went on the internet that night.
He put "Bag of crap, $10."
(Rob chuckles) Brown bag.
By the next night he had 1,200 orders.
- Really?
- People didn't know what they were gonna get in the bag.
(Rob chuckles) $10.
That boy, before he, that young man, before he graduated high school, had a Range Rover, a second car, and a huge warehouse, and had started an online business.
- Oh, I bet he had all the honeys too.
- Yeah.
(laughs) I don't know about that.
I don't know what you mean.
But there are a lot of locally grown honeys in central Illinois.
(Rob laughing) But anyway, so this bag of crap became his thing.
And that was one of the entrepreneurship stories of, you know, thinking differently, capitalizing on opportunities.
And I think that's what we're trying to do with young people.
Today is, you know, use what's here and make something of it.
And now you wanna see what's inside?
- What's in the damn bag?
- Oh, let's look.
Okay.
So growing up, I actually put on my first resume "Head of duct tape and bailing wire division for Hampton Farms."
(Rob laughing) - That's funny.
- For real.
Because whenever you're there, and you're the only one who's gonna take care of these cattle, it's up to you, right?
- Yeah.
- Ya gotta figure it out.
- Yeah.
- And, uh... - What's in the damn bag.
- I know, what's in it?
- What's in the bag!
- I gotta show ya.
It is a bottle of Shinola.
- Oh, there's a joke I can't say.
- Well, so that was my Grandpa Hampton.
- Can I touch it?
- Yeah, but it's, the reason I put it on this - no, I don't wanna, no.
- little Japanese tray, is 'cause the bottom's kind of broken.
- Oh, I don't wanna do that.
- But we can... So what Shinola is, is like a boot black.
And this has since, long since evaporated.
- [Rob] Yeah.
That's old then.
- It is.
This is probably from, I'd say the '40s, or '50s even.
No, well, '50s or '60s maybe.
My dad paid for his way through college showing sheep, Southdown sheep, and raising them.
- Yeah.
- Got first two as a 4H project.
But the phrase I grew up hearing was, "They don't know," a four-letter word, starts with an S, ends with a T, "from Shinola."
And the deal was, you know, how do you figure out what's real and what's not?
What's truth and what's fiction?
And so you don't just fall for anything anybody says, but you gotta ask questions.
Gotta figure it out.
Gotta have some life's experiences.
So I thought that's pretty significant.
- That's probably why you didn't do well in advertising.
- Exactly.
(laughs) - Do you ever think about that?
I mean, it probably, - I think you're right.
- it was too foreign.
- It was, (laughs) well it was like, I wanna know what makes people tick, but I don't wanna manipulate 'em.
- Honestly, I thought when you said he was showing the sheep that he was using that to, you know, how they dress the, the animals up a little bit?
(Heather laughs) - Heard stories, but, (both laughing) I've never done it myself.
- Were you ever a livestock shower?
- Yes.
Showed Angus cattle and some crossbred steers.
- So there's like a break, right.
There was like, I think like the generation I was, and then somewhere maybe in the '90s, they started wearing like, bling on their bottoms and that.
So which generation were you?
- I was probably just prior to that.
I would wear boots in the show ring, Justin Ropers.
- Yeah.
- That was the boot.
- [Rob] No bling.
- Not really bling, nope.
Plain jeans, but maybe a shirt that would look a little more dressy, but not- - You know what I'm talking, like the bedazzled.
- Yeah, no rhinestones, no bedazzled, no.
- Yeah.
Okay.
- Nope, I was lucky to get my hair brushed, you know what I mean?
- Did you enjoy it, showing livestock?
- I did, and I kinda wish that our children... The largest animal one of our children showed was a goat, right?
But I think there's something to be learned from being yanked around by a 1,200 pound animal, and stepped on, that teaches you, you can bounce back.
- And you can't react when you get stepped on.
- Right, you gotta keep your cool, and keep moving forward.
- Ya gotta keep one eye on the steer, one eye on on your dad, - One eye on the judge.
- and one eye on the judge.
(Heather laughs) - 'Cause he's definitely - I never understood - the judge.
(laughs) - how that worked.
Dad was like... (laughs) - I guess I didn't really keep an eye on my dad at that point.
(Heather laughs) - Oh, mine was, mine was quite hard on that rule.
(Rob laughs) - Was he?
- Okay, we talked about you doing a lot of, heck, you do a lot of stuff you don't have to, a lot of volunteerism, you know, the county board.
- Yeah.
- Talk to me about the Governor's Affair Council.
- Oh, Rule Affairs Council.
- Governor's Rule Affair Council.
- Well, I think it started, I'd been active in our county to try to get better broadband, better internet, connectivity long before it was cool.
And that led me to a lot of different meetings.
And at the time, Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn had been a true leader, trying to say, "What can we do as a state to help bridge that digital divide, and talk about between rural and urban areas."
And that led me into meetings and in that conversation, and I ended up, actually, I think I was first appointed, that would've been Governor Blagojevich, but working with Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn as a citizen member.
And then have since been appointed by, you know, Governor Quinn, Governor Rauner, who I was on his ag transition team before he became governor, and co-chaired that, I guess.
And then Governor Pritzker kind of renewed.
- I thought when the new governor comes in, you clean house, right?
- Usually they do, but apparently, in rural, (laughs) maybe they're just too few of us, I don't know.
- I mean, do you have, do you meet Pritzker in like, a job interview type of thing, or did you just get a call - No.
- and say, "Hey, guess what, you can't quit."
- Right, no.
(laughs) He's the one governor I've not met, but I have met with Lieutenant Governor Stratton.
So typically the lieutenant governor chairs that council.
- Okay.
- So that's who you're working with.
So like, Evelyn Sanguinetti, Pacino Sanguinetti, Sheila Simon, you know, all excellent people.
Hard workers, good thinkers, want to do the right thing, and and that's the thing.
- I mean, 'cause honestly as a farmer, I'm like, and nobody cares about rural in Illinois politics.
But you're saying they do?
- Well they do, but what's challenging is sometimes you get that, you know, there's a partisan messaging, or they come in with their own agenda and try to make it their own.
And it's been more challenging for me the last year and a half, just given what we've been dealing with as a family, to really engage.
And I need to complete training, so there's the irony.
You know, as you, I'm an appointee to this council.
We have no budget that we're overseeing.
Like, we're not spending any money, we aren't hiring any employees directly, but yet I have to complete.
Harassment training, DEI training, fiscal, like ethics, LGBTQ training, and one more, HIPAA.
I'm thinking we're doing nothing with healthcare.
Why do I have to do HIPAA?
I don't know.
(Rob laughs) But it's all part of the, part of the requirements.
- Have I done anything wrong in this interview?
- I (laughs) don't know.
You haven't made me feel uncomfortable, Rob.
I don't know.
- Yet.
- The honey reference.
I could maybe find something, but ah.
(both laughing) - I haven't made you feel uncomfortable yet.
You brought a bag and made me look at it for half the interview.
So what do you do at the Governor's Rural Affair Council?
I mean, what's your, what is the goal of it?
- They're quarterly meeting.
It was formed in the late '80s, I think in large response to the farm crisis at that time.
So the overall mission is to bring together the state's agencies, core agencies, and get some focus in terms of what existing programs do they have, and how can that impact rural, or what can we do better?
And then if there need to be some legislative changes to that, what can we do?
Now, it's ebbed and flowed though, I think initially, the Rural Affairs Council, like, in that late '80s, early '90s, had even more activity to advise on things that ended up establishing like, the Illinois Agriculture Education Council and Leadership Council for Ag Education, which I was vice chair of that in the '90s, you know, trying to get more agriculture education and professional teachers and science in schools.
Whereas now, really it's been frustrating to me, because I think one of the rural issues that we have is succession of small businesses.
And oftentimes there may be somebody out, and again, going back to CEO, and how can we match people who are entrepreneurial in their thinking, or have the work ethic, and how can we give them some management skills so that we could ultimately matchmake them, as we have people exiting a business.
'Cause a business can still be profitable.
They just need people who can manage it.
- It sounds simple.
- And that's where we have the dearth.
It does, but there's kind of this dearth of leadership in general.
- Oh, I hate that word.
- Dearth, I know.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, it's- - Very earthy.
- (coughs) It gets to the (Rob laughs) like, oh, I felt that.
- Well, a lot of the stuff that you were, you've been doing, '90s, the early 2000s, it says here that you are a woman.
- I am.
- Okay.
- I have four children, that I birthed.
- I mean, if someone landed on this planet today, and they looked at agriculture, they'd be like, "Okay, a lot more men than women."
But there's plenty of women.
- At least in developed countries, correct.
- Yes.
- In less developed countries.
In developing countries, it's primarily women who are the small farmers.
- That's because it's the way it should be, because, we don't wanna - Well, no.
(laughs) - work that much.
My point is, you were in agriculture and in leadership roles in agriculture and farming and agriculture, when you weren't just a minority, you were a vast minority.
- Yes.
- So do you feel like ag has changed, (Heather laughs) as far as looking at chicks?
- Tremendously, yes.
(Rob laughs) It's gone outside the poultry barn.
Yes.
So I remember there was a council for food and ag research.
And what's interesting is, as a student at U of I, I was involved in the early conversations, before the legislation even passed, I found it.
And then as a young adult, I ended up being involved in the working groups and in strategic research initiatives and on advisory, internal advisory reviews with universities to allocate research funding.
And I was literally the only woman in the room.
And I ended up being- - [Rob] Like, out of how many?
- Out of say 20, 25 people.
- Okay, is that intimidating, - In those subgroup meetings, - isn't it?
- in the subgroup meeting.
Now in the larger meetings, there were some exemplary women leaders.
You know, Sue Adams, Knox County.
- She's a fantastic woman.
- She is.
And you know, so well-informed and, you know, geared toward doing the right thing.
And so it's not that they weren't there, but what you had was quality, right?
But I ended up chairing a working group on expanding ag markets.
And not only was I the youngest person in the room, I was the only woman in the room.
And one time my childcare fell through, we were meeting in Springfield, and that was probably 20 people around a u-shaped table.
And I had to bring two of my sons, (Rob laughs) and they're back there playing with farm equipment.
And then I had the one, who was like toddler age distribute handouts to everybody.
(laughs) - Slave labor.
- He was great.
No, he was great though.
My children have been to more meetings than most adults.
- Yeah.
- No joke.
(laughs) They've been there from day one.
- I went to a, it was a, we were speaking, and I was by myself and it was like, a women's group.
And I walk into the room and someone was presenting, but there was like, 50 women in there.
And they all turned around and looked at me.
I was the only guy in a room.
I'm like, oh, this, this must, it feels like.
(laughs) - Be how it feels?
(laughs) No, it's like those saloon, in a film, you know, and somebody walks in the saloon, everything stops.
You know, (laughs) piano music stops.
- It is intimidating, right?
You were the only woman, in a very dude-based... - There were some moments like that, but I think growing up in 4H and FFA, I always felt like I always knew somebody in the room.
Or if you didn't know 'em, you felt like you're gonna get to know 'em.
You're gonna find something in common.
So I never really focused on that as a difference.
I viewed our mission as our commonality.
And that seemed to work out.
- Well it says a lot about you that you can... I don't know, I found it intimidating.
Yeah.
Now are you still the president of the American Agri Women?
- No, I'm the immediate past president - Okay.
- until November of '25.
So I'm almost at the end of my term there.
And it's been a good run.
(laughs) - [Rob] Yeah.
No impeachments?
Nothing like that?
- No.
(laughs) Thank goodness.
(laughs) Not on my watch.
- So what do you feel like agriculture today, because obviously you take a lot of time off your farm to try to make, not just farming, but the world a better place.
If a young person comes up to you and says, "Hey, you know, I wanna help.
Ya know, I wanna do what you've done."
What advice do you give them?
- It's interesting, 'cause a young engineer asked me that fairly recently, and- - Nobody ever asks my advice.
- Oh, well, (laughs) maybe you're just not old enough yet.
You look too young.
(laughs) - It's the beard dye.
- And they look at me like, oh, she has age.
She must know something.
(Rob laughs) But I guess my advice to him was, I don't want this to be construed as follow your passion, 'cause that's not what I'm trying to say.
What I'm saying is, you keep doing the right thing, and you show up, and you try to think about... I'm trying to remember how I said it to him, but it was like, don't only think about your own advantage and what's in it for me, but how can I help them?
- I don't get that.
(Heather laughs) I, yeah, I just wanna help myself.
But that's truly what a person like yourself, that's what sets you apart.
We've interviewed people like yourself on here, and it's always that same thing.
You can always tell when someone is on it just so I can say, "Hey, I'm on this board," or "Hey, I'm the president."
And then someone like yourself that like, "Hey, I'm doing this to actually try to make things better."
- Yeah.
Well thank you.
- Yeah.
- But I sense that in him too.
And I'm like, you know, you keep chipping away at it, and then realize, like I tell the CEO students, or not students, team.
A network is so you can build each other up.
Basically, you're gonna be given rope in your life, and you choose what you're gonna do with that.
If you choose to think you're only gonna use it to pull yourself up, make a ladder and climb over the next guy, you're gonna end up probably hanging yourself with that same rope.
However, if you choose to make a net, then you realize that that is there to help you bounce back and help other people as well.
- [Rob] There's a lot of knots and a net though.
- There are a lot of knots and, but that also binds you in relationship.
- Oh, look at you, you can pull that all together.
(Heather laughs) See, that's why you're so good.
Here I am just trying to screw with you, and you're like, oh, here's another life lesson, Rob.
(both laughing) - Zing, yeah.
I prayed before I came on, and I was like, "Just please let me do something right."
- You just, and your like- - And if I gave you that, that's good.
(laughs) - Please, have Rob not be a complete jerk to me.
- (laughs) No.
- Do you enjoy the agriculture community?
- Yes, overall I do.
I do.
But you know, it's also, it's very competitive at the local level, and you know, in Illinois more than 65% of the acres are rented.
And so that implies competition for that.
And what's interesting though is like, we've been in meetings in the last week with agronomists trying to say, like I'm telling my sons, we have to feed the plants.
You have to have a crop.
So don't think you can just cut out, - Fertilizer.
- an entire nutrient, right.
And even a few agronomists are like, "Well, you know, on your rented acres you could cut back."
And I'm like, "Wait, hold up."
- Yeah.
- Because we've been blessed with the fact that we've been able to rent from people for 20 and 30 years, and they're like family.
So we're not gonna short them, you know.
We've gotta do the right thing, because we wanna come back the next year, and we want everybody to succeed.
- Yeah, keeping their ground.
- And so we figure a way.
We gotta make it work.
- Like you're keeping your own is the reason - Exactly.
- that you've kept it.
Heather, I've had a chance to talk to you a few different times.
We haven't talked about you winning the award at the Illinois Ag Leadership.
Or was it the Torch Award?
- Yeah, the Torch of Leadership.
That was really an honor.
I mean, that's humbling.
- But yes, I wanna acknowledge that as well.
- Thank you.
- You impress me as someone that is truly wanting to help, not just ag, but the community around you.
- Absolutely.
- And not just for self-serving goals.
And that's, it's a rarity, because, I mean, you can do both.
You can serve the community and also, hey, look at me.
But you, you just seem like you're the type of person that agriculture and rural communities and the world needs.
- Well, thank you.
- So I wanna thank you for that.
(Heather laughs) Heather, thanks for coming.
Everybody else, we'll catch you next week.
- Thank you.
(bold music) (bold music continues) (bold music continues) - If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to explore more of our local content.
You can connect with us on our social media platforms, visit our website, or download and watch the free PBS app.
We can't wait to see you next time on "A Shot of Ag."

- News and Public Affairs

Top journalists deliver compelling original analysis of the hour's headlines.

- News and Public Affairs

FRONTLINE is investigative journalism that questions, explains and changes our world.












Support for PBS provided by:
A Shot of AG is a local public television program presented by WTVP