The Farm Credit Foundation for Agricultural Advancement announced it will be awarding $25,000 in academic scholarships to mid-Atlantic area teachers that are looking to obtain an advanced degree in agriculture or continuing education credits. The online application launched on August 3 and will be open through September 25, 2020.

“Agriculture educators plan a crucial role in preparing the future of our industry,” says Tony Ill, Chairman of the Farm Credit Foundation for Agricultural Advancement. “There are many sides of agriculture that students can choose, and our ag educators are paving the way for youth to learn about the many options both on and off the farm. It’s important for these educators to continue advancing their knowledge to make an even bigger impact.”

The non-profit Foundation was established in 2015 and is funded by participating association Horizon Farm Credit. The Farm Credit Foundation for Agricultural Advancement also runs a Community Education Program and Student Scholarship Program.

“I am very confident that the future of agriculture is in good hands,” adds Ill. “I would encourage any agriculture educator considering continuing their education to apply for this unique scholarship program.”

The ag educator scholarship application and more information about the Foundation is available online at fcfoundationforag.org or email info@FCFoundationforAg.org. Be sure to follow us on social media with the hashtag #OtherSideOfAg.

As much as we like to be independent and make our own decisions, farming and starting your own business requires you to develop a network of experts if you want to be successful long-term. If you can’t be the best at everything, surrounding yourself with the people who know how to get the job done well will help prepare you to take on any challenge.

Networking for New Farmers

We talked to our loan officers and some of our customers and they determined these are the top ten people should you network with as a farmer:

1. A Mentor

With less than 1.5% of the population working in agriculture, it can be hard to find peers that relate to what you might be going through as a farmer. Luckily, many of the commodities that make our industry so diverse have already found ways to band together and share stories, resources, and even a helping hand. Think about your operation (or your dream operation) and determine what values are important to you. Perhaps you’re passionate about beef production in Delaware, dairy goats in Maryland, Pennsylvania business in a sustainable way, or just a young, beginning or small farmer in the Mid-Atlantic looking to connect – there’s a group for it, you just have to look! Use these new connections to help set realistic goals and navigate challenges.

Not sure where to look? Joining agricultural organizations like Farm Bureau or Young Farmers and Ranchers can help you connect locally and nationally to meet like-minded farmers who can be your mentor.

2. Accountant and/or Financial Advisor

When it comes to taking care of your financial health, you want to make sure you’re keeping tabs on your financial statements regularly so you know if your business is remaining profitable. Often, you’ll see many family operations divvying up these kinds of tasks, with one family member handling office tasks like bookkeeping, payroll, and paying bills. By finding an accountant to help you with your books, you add someone with experience in following bookkeeping best practices to your team, ensuring you’re prepared for tax season..

Pro Tip: Find an accountant that has experience in agriculture to save you time and help you find new ways to cut costs or take advantage of different tax programs.

DIY Farm Bookkeeping: If you’re heck-bent on doing it yourself, you, like many of our customers, may like using QuickBooks. We have a coupon code to make trying it a little cheaper too!

3. Legal Counsel

If you’re planning to register your operation as a business entity like a partnership or LLC, look for a lawyer or legal counsel that has ag experience. They’ll be able to help you determine the best business structure for your operation and provide advice on what kinds of insurance you may need in accordance with liability and local and state laws.

Legal counsel can also help you prepare for property and real estate dealings as you expand your operation, or even guide you through the transition of your family farm passing onto the next generation.

Pro Tip: Find someone who is willing to work jointly with your accountant and who specializes in farm family succession planning.

4. Regulatory Counsel

No matter what commodities you produce, agricultural laws and regulations are constantly being passed and changing over time. Identifying reliable experts who can help you understand what these laws and regulations mean for your business will help keep you on the right side of the law.

Pro Tip: Many member associations will offer subject matter experts to help serve as a resource to you.

5. Insurance Agent

Wait, my farm isn’t covered by homeowners insurance? Farm insurance is a specific type of insurance policy that covers farm liability and risk. It’s important to find the right insurance agency that will take the time to understand your farming operating and the risks that are associated with it so you have adequate coverage.

When production is low or damaging weather like floods, drought or hail come along, the results are devastating to your crop and your bottom line. Crop insurance is a risk management tool that helps you financially meet both your personal and business obligations when your crops cannot. Research and determine if crop insurance makes sense for you here.

Pro Tip: Don’t forget to update your policy as you purchase new equipment or make farm improvements- make sure you are fully insured.

6. Your Local Extension Agent

No matter what you grow or raise, your local extension agent can help you navigate many business roadblocks through educational resources and research. Although exact programing varies by each office, their resources will revolve around agriculture and food systems, environmental and natural resources, youth development, and family and consumer sciences. With topics ranging from ag law to financial health, extension gives you the tools to build a strong business for free or for small registration fees.

How to find your local extension office: Google search for “YOUR COUNTY” “YOUR STATE” extension office, or use a local county extension finder tool like this one.

7. Loan Officer

We know what you’re thinking: “Farm Credit would say that I need a loan!” But hear us out. Capital is one of the biggest barriers to entry for our industry. Even if you’re not operating a thousand acres of grain, you still probably don’t have enough cash to purchase equipment, land and starting inventories, or supplies for a small farmstead. And that’s okay.

Taking out a loan to help start your business can be an important step for your operation’s growth. One thing that we look at from the loan officer’s perspective is whether or not your operation will cash flow enough to support this kind of liability. We want to make sure you are set up for success for the long-haul. Don’t get us wrong - we’re not the only one who can make loans for ag operations, but we encourage you to put your lender to each and every one of these tests so you can be sure that you’re getting a partner you trust and not just a banker with a dotted line to sign.

8. Farm Service Agency or FSA

Connecting with your local Farm Service Agency staff is important for any new farmer entering the field. The FSA strives to serve all farmers and agricultural partners through the delivery of effective programs and services. From acreage reporting for crop insurance to Farm Bill programs and conservation programs, FSA provides a number of tools to farmers from the United States Department of Agriculture.

If you’re uncertain about where your local FSA office is located, use this locator tool to find it!

9. Soil Conversation District

As you become a new landowner, learning about protecting your farming operation’s soil health will directly impact your land’s productivity. Learning from your local soil conservation district expert can help you to learn about new conservation practices, innovative technology, and natural resource programs to enhance your farming operation. 

The mission of the Conservation District is to promote responsible management of natural resources and conservation efforts. They provide technical assistance and educational opportunities to preserve the use of land, water, and related natural resources.

One item to keep in mind, many Conservation Districts operate on a local level and under state law to fulfill location specific natural resource initiatives. To connect with your local Conservation District, click here.

10. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)

We know the costs behind conservation improvements can be intimidating. NRCS supports America’s farmers, ranchers and forest landowners by helping them make investments in their operations increase that increase the competitiveness of American agriculture while also improving the quality of our air, water, soil and habitat. They will work with you one-on-one to offer you personalized advice and help you find the best solutions for your business and conservation goals.

Here are the steps you need to take to get assistance from NRCS.

As you begin your journey don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you’d like to speak with a loan officer in your area, just let us know. Outside of financial services, our loan officers can help you create important business connections and refer you to companies with ag experience that will help you succeed. You don’t have to do it alone!

LISTEN TO Justin's EPISODE HERE OR FIND US ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST LISTENING APP!

Summary

On this episode of the Farm Credit AgVocates podcast, Katie Ward and Geoff Delamater sit down with Justin Harrison of Farmacy Brewing to learn how he turned his small home brew passion project into a large on-farm brewery and tasting room. We also dive into his background growing up on Willowdale Farm, his involvement in the local ag community, and the ins-and-outs of growing various ingredients for each craft beer. 

Visit Farmacy Brewing:

3100 Black Rock Road, Reisterstown, MD 21136
Friday 4-8pm, Saturday 12-8pm, or Sunday 12-6pm

Katie Ward:

Welcome to the Farm Credit AgVocates Podcast, I’m your host Katie Ward, ­­­­Public Relations and Communications Specialist for Horizon Farm Credit.

Joining me today as my co-host is Geoff Delamater, Farm Credit Loan Officer in the Bel Air, Maryland branch. Geoff currently works with today’s guest and he is one of my LEAD Maryland Class 11 fellows. He is also a lover of craft beverages, which will come in handy during this episode! Thanks for joining us today Geoff.

Geoff Delamater:

Thanks for having me.

Katie Ward:

Earlier this month we celebrated National Beer Day and the ingredients grown by farmers that make up the beverage loved by many. It's only fitting that we follow it up by bringing on a guest to our podcast who not only knows beer, but also runs an on-farm brewery.

Justin Harrison is a fourth generation farmer in Baltimore County, Maryland who owns and operates Farmacy Brewing on Willowdale Farm with his family. A working farm, raising horses, cattle, hay, row crops, fruits and vegetables, Willowdale Farm strives to preserve the best of Maryland agriculture. Farmacy Brewing sits right in the middle of the working farm, surrounded by horses, fields and production. Without further ado, I'm excited to welcome Justin to our podcast today. Thank you for joining us.

Justin Harrison:

Thanks so much for having me.

WILLOWDALE FARM AND FARMACY BREWING

Katie Ward:

All right. Let's start off the conversation today by having you dive into the background of your farm, Willowdale and then the brewery and how it all started.

Justin Harrison:

The farm started out really in the early fifties with my grandparents. My grandfather and grandmother were married and they actually lived in a little house in the Pikesville area, and then they moved out to a place near the Maryland line. They only had the first farm for a few years and it really was just something to have away from the city. They found this spot and it really evolved like a lot of farms. It started out with the core acreage, and then they were able to buy parcels along the way.

As the family grew, different family members, aunts and uncles built a house or had a part of the farming operation here as well. My dad is a Veterinarian and continues practicing [as an] equine veterinarian, so we focused primarily on the thoroughbred industry here. That was something that he and my mother really changed when they moved out here.

Kind of coming full circle up to the brewery element, back in 2010, I finished grad school. I was out at Humboldt State, which is out in Northern California. I moved back and one of the things that we did just as an adjunct was to have a CSA, so we did Farmer's Markets. We sold to a lot of restaurants in the area and our very first year we had about 10 CSA shareholders that came and got their vegetables off the farm.

We grew that for about five years to where we had about 60 members. We were participating in a couple of Farmer's Markets and then we had about seven or ten restaurant accounts that we were delivering to every single week. We had the idea of evolving that component, the CSA Farmer's Market with craft beverages.

I was already a home brewer and I already had interest in it. I didn't really know where that was going to go as it was just a hobby, but I saw how difficult the farm market gardening was for a few people. The places that have done it well have 200 plus shares every year and they usually have very seasonal staff. They may have 20 people working seasonally. We were just family, so it was just four of us running everything.

The idea of the brewery kind of stemmed off of how do we evolve this and what's the progression here where we can still keep the farm the center focal point, but then maybe adapt or translate some of the ingredients that we were growing and put them into beer specifically.

There was a point in time where we looked at maybe a winery. We have a winery literally right over the hill, so that didn't make much sense. We looked at a distillery concept and the return was not really there. It's a very long-term process and more power to the folks that do it, but it didn't seem to blend with what we were trying to do. I was already on a homebrew scale, adding weird things like strawberry rhubarb, cucumber and tomatoes to incorporate it into beer in a way that could work without it tasting like a salad basically. So the brewery evolved from that.

Katie Ward:

So it was your passion that you had personally that you were able to grow and bring it onto the farm?

Justin Harrison:

Yes, and I would be remiss if I didn't say that when my wife and I were married and we went on our honeymoon, my dad actually picked us up at the airport. The whole ride home he was talking about seeing something on TV about Tom Barse and Milkhouse Brewery. He was saying this guy's growing hops and you do a lot of this stuff already, maybe you should look at this concept.

The irony there is that during the whole process of business, the business model and the planning, he was probably my biggest competition. Every turn was go back to the drawing board, rewrite, examine and reflect if it was a good thing. We had that idea and that initial discussion in 2015 and I also learned of a new bill that's coming through that that will actually allow Baltimore County to have Class Eight Farm Brewery licensing, because prior to that, you couldn't do it.

Katie Ward:

Okay, awesome.

Geoff Delamater:

Tell us a little bit about the name Farmacy. How did it come about?

Justin Harrison:

I had a business partner early on who is a Pharmacist at Union Memorial. We have since split and it's just my family and I now. With the concept of incorporating the medicinal elements of plants and incorporating the use of food as medicine, I wanted to have a name that really kept the farm center.

I didn't want to lose sight of the fact that we're still a working farm and I didn't really want to just use the name Willowdale because that's what we do with our horses and our cattle, that's the rest of the property. This was something kind of unique that at the same time fits like a puzzle piece into the rest of the farm.

THE TASTING ROOM AND CRAFT BEERS

Katie Ward:

Great. Awesome.

Let's talk about the gorgeous tasting room that we're sitting in right now. If I am correct, it was once a 9-stall horse stable and now it looks like a modern day brewery.

Justin Harrison:

Yeah, it was. I wish I could say it had all this historic reverence, but it doesn't. In the early nineties, we were starting to see an expansion of the thoroughbred industry. This started out as nothing more than a storage barn for hay, because we had more animals that were coming on to the property, so we needed that storage.

We then added the floor out of the stalls and it was an overflow barn because we were working at the time with the Maryland Stallion Station which is right off Tufton Avenue. When they folded in 2008, it was this wave of reality where you knew nothing is permanent. We had a business partnership with them and it's gone, so now what are we going to do with this building. It was where we stored a lot of junk. It really was trash and old equipment that we didn't use for years.

The irony is we actually had our CSA pick up here. When this still had the stalls, we had one area that we would put all our refrigerators and cold storage for vegetables and stuff in. We would set up a table and a booth and customers would pull up, they'd walk in, they'd get their produce and they'd leave. That's how that whole thing started and evolved. As we looked at locations for this brewery, we didn't want to build anything, so it was fitting that we started this concept here, so let’s finish it and see where it goes.

Geoff Delamater:

How many beers have you created? How many beers do you have on tap?

Justin Harrison:

We have 12 taps and actually have a hard time keeping them filled, which I'm working on. Since our start, we have probably brewed somewhere around 75 to 85 different beers. There's a lot of variability and try to keep everything as seasonal as possible and that doesn't necessarily mean that it's always unique.

If you take an IPA, for example, there's IPA's that we do year round with a beer called Beet Box that has a beet juice in it. It's about 60 pounds per batch of beet juice that we grow. It’s a West Coast IPA so it has that citrusy element that blends really well with the beet juice that might be on year round. We've done stuff with spruce tips. We have Norway spruce around here and we can only get that in the spring, so it only comes out this time of year.

Katie Ward:

Wow. Is the beet juice IPA a reddish tint?

Justin Harrison:

It's like magenta color. It's actually one of the most beautiful beers we've done. It freaks people out because they look at it and think that it must be a sour or something like that.

Then they taste it and the hops jump out and you get the earthiness from the beets. It blends together as a little bit of sweetness to it, but it works well. That’s not on tap right now. It will be on tap in the next two to three weeks.

Katie Ward:

What is your favorite Farmacy Brewing Beer that you've ever brewed?

Justin Harrison:

That's tough, I have two and they are kind of opposites.  I have always had an affinity for stouts and darker beers. We have a beer called Sassy Love that's named after one of our mares. It's a Mexican chocolate stout. It’s kind of chocolatey and it’s kind of spicy. It has guajillo and fish pepper in it. Fish pepper is unique to the Chesapeake Bay region. It's a nice clean spice, but it's not a fiery beer.

Between that, and a beer on tap right now called Knowing A Ghost. It's a Belgian-style Wit. It’s like a perfect spring, summer, fall beer. It's named after a friend of ours that passed away too. It uses a lot of farm grown wheat. What’s kind of unusual is that we get to use a lot of raw ingredients, so this beer has 50% raw wheat in it.

A lot of brewers shy away from that because you're not sure what the turnout is going to be. It doesn't have the enzymatic activity there, but it works really well in that style and you can drink it all day long. It’s about 4.8%, so it’s an easy drink.

Katie Ward:

Awesome. That's very special too with the name.

TO-GO OPTIONS

Geoff Delamater:

For the folks that want to take your beer home with them, what are your to-go options?

Justin Harrison:

We started initially with doing growlers and we had people that brought in their own glass growlers and we had really nice stainless steel ones. After COVID, we shied away from that. I'd like to get back to it, but it's tough because you really want to have a dishwasher and a way to sanitize everything.

We have growler cans right now and we use them. The problem is aluminum is really tough to find, so I'll get a palette of metal and I will hoard it and we'll use them as we can. We've been working a lot with the mobile canning company, so we do 4-packs to-go as well.

Katie Ward:

What size are those cans?

Justin Harrison:

Those are 16 ounces, so we do 16 ounce 4-packs. We're not quite at the production level to shift down to 12 6-packs. Because of the seasonality of our beers, if something comes out, we might be able to bring it back in one to two months, but it's not something that's always on the shelf.

When people go in and make a choice about what they want to buy that's in a 16 ounce 4-pack, it still conveys that it is a special edition or a one off or something like that.

Katie Ward:

You mentioned COVID changing your growler situation. I'm sure it's also changed the whole functionality of being at a brewery.

Do you have any online ordering or digital options that you been using?

Justin Harrison:

We do.  Like everybody else, when we were shut down, we switched over to that completely. We had online ordering, but we just finally set up the order and pay at your table. You swipe a QR code to pay so everything is contactless.

We still do the online ordering. That's everything from people that want to run in real quick on the weekends and pick up something. Or if we do something special, like around the holidays, we'll have extra days for people to come in. They know they may see family, so they want to get something extra and we'll do it that way as well.

Katie Ward:

Awesome. Do you foresee that sticking?

Justin Harrison:

Yes, totally. It’s interesting, as reactionary as you are to something like COVID, the local regulatory hurdles also shift. We've seen this change over where Maryland used to not let you ship alcohol and now they do.

There’s programs like Beer Me, which as we grow our inventory here, I hope to get on that. We're just a little too small right now, so it's tough to keep up with that, but absolutely. I think the marketplace in general, not just beverage purchasing, but everything is switching to ordering on a smartphone.

HOW THE BEER IS MADE

Geoff Delamater:

I know you grow and incorporate a lot of the ingredients into your beer.

Can you explain your beer making process?

Justin Harrison:

The things that I've learned in the last couple of years, really two years almost of operation, is that you can't just take any recipe and just throw something into the base recipe. We literally talk and we have meetings here with staff every Monday morning.  We have a pow-wow of what did you experience this past weekend and what do you want to do moving forward?

We tie in where we are at the production level with everything up in the gardens. We talked about the beet beer and that wasn't the first time we had a couple of other beers where we wanted to figure out a way to incorporate beets. The first iterations were the food coloring. It's kind of pinkish, but it just tastes like an IPA. It was a good IPA, but that was it. You push forward without it blowing up in your face, so to speak.

I think that the things that I've enjoyed doing are taking a concept and then just going to the next level with that. We have a beer right now in cans called Sun Bleeds Red. It's a dark Saison, which is an unusual style and loosely based off a French farmhouse recipe. It’s a darker beer, with darker malts.

We actually have pumpkin, beets, sun dried cherry tomato in it. There's a little bit of cinnamon, so it adds warm spice, but then it's a very dry finishing farmhouse beer, very low hop presence. Those different vegetables with the herbs, spices and everything blends together to where you have this really different experience. At the end of it all, something has to taste good for people that want to come back, so you have that delicate balance.

Katie Ward:

I am sure it’s all trial and error too.

Justin Harrison:

Yes, definitely and we have been pretty fortunate as well. We switched over out of the home brew realm to this small three and a half barrel system. I kind of hate it right now because I double batch everything into seven barrel fermenters.

It’s twice the amount of work to get one tank filled, but starting out it actually was okay because we were lucky that we never really had to dump anything. We didn’t feel that enormous pressure of having $10,000 worth of ingredients going into this single batch that if I screw it up then we're done. This is pretty manageable to handle.

Katie Ward:

That's good.

Do a lot of the ingredients come from your farm or from other local farmers? What would you say is the percentage of the outsourced jobs?

Justin Harrison:

Full disclaimer, we don't grow hops here. That's usually the very first question I get.

Katie Ward:

That’s a little difficult to do in Maryland, right?

Justin Harrison:

We're not the best climate. The heat and humidity of the summer really stacks the cards against you. We already had established some other for lack of better term, holistic kind of practices. We have beehives all over the farm that my sister takes care of them. We have pollinator habitat, an orchard, a couple high tunnels of greenhouses and a lot of other things going on.

To then go in and take over some field area to put hops in and start spraying to prevent fungal diseases, it just didn't work. So we do buy our hops. I actually feel pretty strongly about that, just because there's so many choices out there.

Every other brewer has access to every ingredient on the planet, so why should farm breweries limit themselves. If I had to put a number on it, we're typically somewhere in that 40 to 45% range that we're growing stuff and harvesting it here.

We try to use a lot of raw ingredients. We have oats and wheat that we're using and I have barley and rye in the ground. We'll alternate back and forth depending on the plot. That allows us at our scale still to incorporate some of those ingredients.

We also work with local malt houses. Dark Cloud Malthouse just moved up to Westminster. They are a place where we can take our grain and they'll malt it for us. It’s nice because we're both right around the same scale, so I can take one of those grain bins on the back of my pickup truck, drive over, and drop that off. That's relatively a batch size for them to then turn over to whatever I want, which works out very well.

BEING INVOLVED IN THE AG COMMUNITY

Geoff Delamater:

To change direction a little bit here, I know you have a young family. I know you have children that are involved with farming and 4-H.

Do you have any type of Ag education opportunities for children on the farm?

Justin Harrison:

Formally no, but I think that I'd argue that experiential education is probably better than anything you could get in a formal setting. I think one of the things we've tried to preserve here and I get feedback from our customers, is being able to come out here as families and bring their children along.

They get to walk around and see the horses, which maybe is the first time they've ever done that. They can go up and see the greenhouses or what's growing in the garden and maybe it's the first time they've ever done that. Parents get the social aspect because everybody knows everybody. They might see someone from their child’s daycare, school or whatever.

They meet up here and they can hang out. It becomes a little bit more of an outdoor social setting, which is nice, especially with young families. Having my daughter be able to walk over here from our house because she knows daddy's in the brewery and she knows what's going on. She's going to go see her horses and she's going to go feed her cows. She's two and a half and it’s wild to just have that experience and to know that it's actually registering and that she gets it. Other children that come here, it's the same thing, and they get it too.

Katie Ward:

Speaking of events and this being an outdoor venue on the farm, do you have any events planned for the summer? I know you host meetings here and you mentioned food trucks earlier.

Do you have any plans?

Justin Harrison:

We actually have our Farm Bureau meeting here on Monday. We've been really pushing to get back in touch with everybody. We've done everything virtually since shut downs last year and I actually cannot wait because we just put it out there.

We have to have an in-person meeting, everybody will be spread out, but we just need to be able to have that face-to-face interaction to get our work done. I was blown away because almost everybody on the board said yes, which is great, because you have that commitment now.

Geoff Delamater:

You didn’t have to twist their arm too much (laughing).

Justin Harrison:

(Laughing), yes, exactly. Come to a brewery for our Farm Bureau meeting so that you can participate, instead of just being at your iPad screen or whatever. We are going to shift back in the summertime where we'll do Friday night Farmer’s Markets. We always have a food truck, so right now we're booked out with food trucks Friday - Sunday from here until at least the end of August.

On Fridays we try to double up where you can come out and it’s a little bit lower key. We're only open for a few hours on Friday and there's food truck and music normally. You can grab some vegetables or talk to us about what's growing in the garden. That is kind of something that's unique that we always try to incorporate.

This year has been a little tricky to plan, but we've done some other neat stuff with other organizations. We’ve hosted fundraiser events and things like that with a couple of groups in Hampstead with raffle tickets and such. We want to incorporate as much of the community as possible without you feeling pressured into anything.

Geoff Delamater:

You mentioned your daughter coming down and feeding your horses and your cows and she knows you're in the brewery.

How did growing up on a farm with your dad as a veterinarian shape your career path and your future?

Justin Harrison:

I don't think if you had asked me that 30 years ago, that I would have said that I'm going to open a brewery on the farm. There was a point in time where I was thinking that I was going to go into veterinary medicine. Right now we're in the middle of foaling season and almost every night we have a mare foaling. I'm usually the one that actually gets the alarm and hears everything.

By the time my dad gets down there, I've already delivered the foal. My sister comes over from her house to help out too. We’ve just grew up in it and we are actively still a part of it. I think that with being here though, one of the things that I now can appreciate so much more is the value of open space and all of the environmental elements that come from that fresh air and clean water.

Knowing, seeing, and living where agriculture has been vilified and everybody wants to go in their little camp where you're either organic or not organic and asks how we do things. I think for us, I was able to take a step back and have the old school point of view. There are some very radical, progressive point of views and just meet somewhere in the middle where I can kind of understand that because I've lived on both sides, so to speak.

Katie Ward:

How has your involvement in the Ag community also helped you with your brewery?

I know you and I met years ago through Maryland Farm Bureau events and you were part of the Young Farmers Committee, and now you are President of the Baltimore County Farm Bureau.

Could you talk a little bit about your involvement in the community?

Justin Harrison:

This year in particular with COVID has been difficult, but prior to that and one of the things that I think is tough to have the conversation about what's involved in farming with somebody that hasn't lived it. You try to have partnerships and some people say their job is really stressful; getting there at 9:00 a.m., can't leave until 5:30 -6 p.m., but I get an hour lunch break.

To me, that's unreal and it sounds awesome. I don't know the last time I didn't eat lunch in my truck driving somewhere on a run. I think that the community is just keeping it real, or at least knowing that the core is Ag and that it's still farm life. We are very lucky out here. Its farm families, its people that have farm land and they understand that.

Bringing people out that have never seen that before and now you get the opportunity to help them understand that it's not all this bad negativity, that there is a whole other side of it. In this day and age, it is tough to have a cordial conversation without going down a political rabbit hole.

We do have a lot of people stoking the fire and that's what attracts attention. It can be negative and it can be angry, but that's not really the right thing. We have these local communities and that's a relative term.  The community radius is not just from here up the road two miles or five miles, it can be all of Baltimore County, it can be Maryland or it could be the Eastern seaboard. We get a chance to share with other people and people that have never had that chance to come out and see it for the first time.

Geoff Delamater:

With your involvement with Baltimore County Farm Bureau, I'm sure you see a lot of trends.

What would you say is your biggest opportunity for the farm and also for the brewery?

Justin Harrison:

I honestly think that that's shifted probably 180 degrees from a year ago. I think prior to that, one of the things that I know with Farm Bureau that we struggled with was just attention; that's probably the simplest way to put it. It's this stupid smartphones that everyone wants instantaneous gratification all the time and if anything takes more than a few seconds, then you're wasting my time kind of attitude.

One of the things we've struggled with on the farm is to get people's attention. In the horse industry, I’ll be the first to admit it’s a little bit of a cottage; everybody knows everybody, and everybody has worked together at some point. People were buying hay from this person who is buying horses from that person and gets training from that person. It goes around in circles.

When you look at agriculture and talk about food, I think it's the same. We know people that run organic market gardens and everybody knows everybody. It's tough to break in, it's a big hurdle. I think what is probably going to continue to be the biggest challenge is just having an opportunity to talk to people and having that opportunity where you can express facts, because there's a lot of misinformation out there too. That's tough because once you're up against that, you unfortunately spiral into this little world of doubt and that's a really tough uphill battle when you're trying to unravel that mess.

Katie Ward:

It's great that you recognize that as a producer yourself, because it's hard to articulate and feel like you're put in a corner and then have to explain your practices when you know that they are environmentally friendly and that they're safe for consumers.

Driving up the lane to get to the brewery, you see the fields and you see the horses, so as a consumer not knowing anything about Ag, it puts you in that mindset before you even stepped foot into the brewery. The fact that you are here on the weekends working, and you're the one growing all the ingredients, it's the perfect place for a consumer to come, who needs any kind of education or has any kind of questions.

Justin Harrison:

Right and we try pretty hard to have that full circle conversation. You’re right, you come in the lane and that's for lack of a better term, that's the show portion. The first building you go by is our farm office, and it’s our foaling barn, so there’s a lot of mares and foals in there. That's what people are attracted too.

Then you come through the rest of the farm and you realize behind this building is basically the guts of everything. We’ve got a lot of hay fields and crop fields that are in the back 40, although it's really more like the back 100. We also have cattle and you don't really even see them because they're on the other side of the building.

When you come to the brewery, if you sit in the back, you can see them. I often I find myself explaining to people that they are my herd and that it’s not somebody else's farm or another property. The grain that comes out of here goes to them. They get rotated out on to temporary hayfields, so they help to fertilize or plant whatever for putting hay out. Then we harvest hay or grain off of that and then it can be used back in the brewery or fed to the horses or whatever other options we have. It’s tough to say it's holistic, that is a played out term.

Katie Ward:

Yes and seeing it helps.

Justin Harrison:

Yes, exactly.

ADVICE FOR SOMEONE STARTING A BREWERY

Geoff Delamater:

I'm sure, you know, the craft beer industry is rapidly growing, especially with the farm breweries.

What advice would you give to someone that wants to start a brewery or get into the business?

Justin Harrison:

Prepare yourself and make sure your stomach is ironclad. I started everything, like I was saying at the beginning, we had the initial conversation in 2015, so I didn't even get my use and occupancy permit until 2019.

There were moments throughout that whole thing where I thought “screw it, I'm done.” It can be so complicated, so frustrating. I think because I was a guinea pig in some element, but now there’s something to go off of. We kind of set the precedent with being not only a working farm and keeping it that way, but then also having a MALPF (Maryland Ag Land Preservation Foundation) as our land preservation group, we worked with them initially.

We work with the Valleys Planning Council on a lot of things as we were kind of evolving our model and how this was going to affect the local Ag community. All of those little things were building up. For somebody now to come in, it's a journey, it's a long process, but I think there's so much diversity out there too in craft beverages. Not just craft beer, but I think craft beverages is a way to reference it now.

You can find your niche and that's probably the most important thing. You need to figure out what makes you unique and what you are good at. If you can identify that, and then they align, you're going to succeed.

Geoff Delamater:

You need to make a beer named Trailblazer.

Justin Harrison:

(Laughing) yes, sure.

Katie Word:

Yes or Guinea Pig.

Justin Harrison:

We will have to come up with something.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Katie Ward:

Awesome.

We always like to do a fun little game on the podcast called the Lightning Round. I'll ask you a couple of this or that and either or questions. Don't take time to think about it, just fire out your answer. We don't need to explain it. We'll just move right onto the next explanation.

Justin Harrison:

Okay, so no explanation. Don't be wordy, got it.

Katie Ward:

Yes, so as fast as you can - a flight or one beer?

Justin Harrison:

One beer.

Katie Ward:

Lager or ale?

Justin Harrison:

Lager.

Katie Ward:

Fruity or hazy?

Justin Harrison:

Hazy.

Katie Ward:

Drinking beer from a can or a glass?

Justin Harrison:

A glass.

Katie Ward:

What is a beer’s best friend, pizza or wings?

Justin Harrison:

Pizza.

Katie Ward:

A brewery game, bingo or trivia?

Justin Harrison:

Trivia.

Katie Ward:

A brewer’s swag, having a beard or wearing a flannel?

Justin Harrison:

Can I say neither?

Katie Ward:

Yeah.

Justin Harrison:

(Laughing) yeah, neither.

WHAT DO YOU ADVOCATE FOR?

Katie Ward:

Okay, neither it is. Well that was fun, thanks a lot.

Before we end our conversation, we always like to ask our guests the same wrap up question at the end of every episode.

What do you advocate for an agriculture?

Justin Harrison:

Having an honest, genuine future. Being able to practice what you preach and being comfortable with that and knowing that you can go to sleep every night with that. Knowing that what you're doing is actually going to be around and be a positive influence on the future, because I don't really think we have much else after that.

Katie Ward:

Well, I appreciate that. Thank you for your time and for sharing your farm and brewery with our followers today.

How can our listeners find you the brewery online? We will link all of this on our podcast website and in the show notes, but if you just want to give a shout out to how they can find you.

Justin Harrison:

We have websites as farmacybrewing.com, but you can also do Instagram, Facebook and I’m pretty sure we have Twitter, everything is kind of linked together. Instagram is usually the best way because we're always trying to update that and keep up with new pictures, new info, stories and everything else.

Katie Ward:

Great.

Where is the brewery located?

Justin Harrison:

It is right in the middle of our farm – 3100 Black Rock Road. It’s Reisterstown, Maryland, but it's really closer to Butler, its dead center on the farm.

Katie Ward:

What are your tasting room hours? I know you've mentioned Friday evenings, Saturday and Sunday.

Justin Harrison:

Yep, it's Friday, 4 – 8; Saturday, 12 - 8; and Sunday, 12-6.

Katie Ward:

If all you listeners want to come in to Farmacy Brewing, make sure to mention Justin or the Farmacy Brewing’s staff that you heard about them on the Farm Credit AgVocates podcast. Thank you again for your time, Justin, and I hope you guys have a great spring and summer here on the farm.

Justin Harrison:

Thank you so much.

Katie Ward:

Thank you also to Geoff for being a great co-host with me today. Your knowledge of the industry and from working with Justin gave us some good insight. I know our listeners will enjoy hearing a new voice on the podcast today as well, so hopefully you can join us again soon.

Geoff Delamater:

Great, you are welcome.

Katie Ward:

Thanks everyone for listening to this episode. Please remember to rate, review, subscribe, and share this with a friend. You can get your podcast notes and subscribe to all email alerts at mafc.com/podcast. Do you have a suggestion for a topic or a new guest? Send them our way via email to podcast@mafc.com Have a great week and keep on advocating.

ROSE OF SHARON EQUESTRIAN SCHOOL

Joan is the Founder, Executive Director, and vision keeper of ROSES (Rose of Sharon Equestrian School) in Glen Arm, Maryland – a 90 percent volunteer-operated program for children, youth, adults, and senior citizens with special needs. “We serve individuals in all age groups,” she explains. “When we began, we served mainly children with disabilities. As time went on, we began to see more students with autism, behavioral issues, and social/emotional needs with many having multiple diagnoses.”

This fall, ROSES is preparing to celebrate their 20-year anniversary of serving their community. “We have a Board of Directors, a team of dedicated volunteers, a part-time barn manager, and part-time stable hand,” Joan explains. “Our barn manager, Connor Bayley, is a graduate student at New York University (NYU) in the mental health and wellness program. She hopes to become a counselor utilizing equine assisted therapy with her clients.”

Joan began her work with horses at age 11 in Massachusetts, working in barns, stables, and day camps caring for and exercising horses. “It was during my teen years as an equine-camp counselor where I began to see what powerful changes horses could facilitate in peoples’ lives, especially those impacted by trauma, disability or other special needs,” she expresses.

Joan eventually found herself working as a journalist, covering a budding therapeutic riding program in Virginia. “There were not many places to become certified,” she mentions. She eventually found and attended the Cheff Center in Michigan. “To attend, you had to be willing to immerse yourself in a month-long program of training, teaching, and testing,” says Joan. “Once certified, I began to look for a way to provide this service to people with special needs. Back then, therapeutic programs were often an add-on to typical boarding and lesson barns. That was when I decided to build my own program from the ground up.”

In 1996, Joan and husband Randy started plans on the facility. “We used a 12 acre parcel of land adjacent to his family’s farm,” she explains. “In the summer of 1997, we broke ground for the American with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant stable.” Building took several years, eventually welcoming the program’s first students in the fall of 2001.

The ROSES stable and arena were intentionally designed from the ground up to be completely accessible. Everything remains organized in a way that even those with limited cognitive ability or problems with executive functioning can become increasingly independent in knowing what to do first, next, and finally when working with the horses.

During the developmental stage, Farm Credit loan officer Keith Wills was available for assistance. “Joan reached out to me with the possibility of securing financing that would enable them to work towards completing infrastructure projects. What impressed me at first was what they had been able to accomplish through donations of both financial and hours of service,” says Keith. “Born from the idea of helping special-needs individuals, the classrooms, indoor-riding arena with ramps, and stairs to help reach and mount horses is truly amazing.”

Keith continues, “Just to have a riding arena of this quality is a huge undertaking. Now they have a mobile van unit that can transport miniature horses to schools, events, and care facilities.”

THE SILVER STEEDS PROGRAM

Three years ago, Joan and her team were approached by a continuing care facility wanting them to work with residents who had various forms of memory loss. “The Silver Steeds program was born, achieving much success prior to COVID-19,” explains Joan. “Over the years, it has become apparent that for every one student or senior coming to us, there may be five more left behind who cannot travel to the farm for multiple reasons. That, coupled with a request from a juvenile detention facility, led ROSES to conduct a campaign to purchase and outfit a van to transport miniature horses to off-site locations.” Joan has also been approached by an area hospital seeking visitations to help with staff morale, stress reduction for patients’ families, and an unexpectedly delightful distraction for the patients themselves.

According to Joan, the growing sense of accomplishment and competence leads marked elevations in confidence and joy each week. Color coding, PECs (picture enhanced communication methods), and a good old-fashioned philosophy of ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’ is used with students. Lessons are reliably structured, there is a predictable routine with appropriately individualized challenges added in each week. Their students’ levels of confidence and responsibility have grown not only at the barn but back at home and in academic settings, as well as within their communities at large.

“Research has shown that positive human-animal interactions can lower blood pressure, heart rate, and reduce levels of stress hormones like cortisol. Studies have also shown a rise in feel-good neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin occur during and after being around animals,” she shares. “To successfully interact with animals in general, and horses in particular, an individual has to be able to self-modulate their actions, reactions, and emotions. Doing that requires a certain amount of mindfulness; once a person becomes aware of their emotions, they can work on managing them.”

PROFIT IS NOT JUST DOLLARS

Keith has worked with ROSES for 15 years and still sees benefits of the program. “Profit is not just dollars,” shares Keith. “Profits can also be measured by the number of people you reach. Being able to help Joan and her organization just seems right.”

“Parents, teachers, family members, medical personnel, and other caregivers have all been responsible for seeking out the ROSES’ program,” Joan shares. “After completing an initial application, we set up a site visit and tour of the facility. If a good match can be made between the student’s (or agency’s) needs and what we have available in terms of openings and volunteer and equine staff, more in-depth paperwork is submitted and a profile is developed from which an individual set of goals and objective(s) is designed.”

Similar to the process of working with her loan officer, Joan always has a goal. “Farm Credit gets it! All things agriculture related… they understand the passion, determination, and character that is required to work with the land, animals, and environment,” says Joan. “I really appreciate the inclusive nature of the Farm Credit model; the guidance, resources, continuing education, advice, and inspiration available whether it comes through the staff or other members.”

The ROSES support system is made up of various individuals, many being voluntary. “The experiential nature of our program and the non-judgmental temperament of our horses and volunteers combine in ways that positively affect many aspects of our students’ lives: physical, emotional, and in many respects mental health, as well,” she shares. “We see this growing need for equine assisted services delivered in the natural environment of a farm for our current population of students and those beyond. ROSES is in the process of pivoting once again to meet this need bolstered by the fact that research continues to demonstrate that nature is good for the mind, body, and spirit, and now with COVID-19, increasingly becoming timelier and more relevant.

“With the onset and continuation of the pandemic, all of the populations we have served in the past, as well as members of the general public, are suffering from symptoms of anxiety and depression due to disruption in their daily routines and other limitations. . Many of the individuals we work with cannot fully understand why these disruptions and limitations are occurring. But they are deeply affected nonetheless.”

Many participants depend on the program for evolvement, life skills, and strengthening quality of life. “We have had students considered non-verbal speak some of their first words and sentences to the horses and members of their volunteer team. Students enjoy more social connections and improved peer relations due in part to their participation in equine facilitated learning,” Joan shares. “Accompanying staff and family members of the senior citizens we serve have reported positive changes in mood, motivation, movement, memory, and more meaningful conversation among the participants.”

The program has not only helped students, but the volunteers who serve them. ROSES barn manager Connor’s involvement has grown from volunteering to becoming a key player in the daily operation of the stable, and shall continue to grow as she completes her master’s program and required licensure for clinical practice. “My program at NYU emphasizes wellness,” shares Connor. “The backbone of counseling and mental health is promoting whole-system wellness from relationships and support, to physical needs, to directly targeting psychological concerns and taking the steps to overcome them.

“Working with horses can help target all aspects of wellness. Being in partnership with a thousand-pound animal, putting your trust in them and having them put their trust in you, is an experience like no other.” As one student’s mother has said, “He walks a little taller when he leaves here.”

To learn more about or donate to ROSES, visit roseofsharonschool.org

Facebook: @roseofsharonschool

Instagram: @roseofsharonequestrianschool

LISTEN TO Emma's EPISODE HERE OR FIND US ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST LISTENING APP!

Summary

On this episode, Katie Ward interviews Emma Larson, Assistant Director of Industry Relations at American Farm Bureau. Emma grew up on her family's farm in California and made her way to Washington, D.C. to begin her career advocating for America’s farmers and ranchers.

Emma leads the Ag Innovation Challenge, a national business competition that showcases American startups developing innovative solutions that address challenges facing farmers and rural communities. Listen to this episode as we get to know the top 10 Ag Innovation Challenge semi-finalists and talk about how these entrepreneurs are changing the agricultural industry for the better. 

Katie:

Welcome to the Farm Credit AgVocates Podcast, I’m your host Katie Ward, ­­­­Public Relations & Communications Specialist at Horizon Farm Credit.  I’m excited to introduce our guest today, Emma Larson, Assistant Director of Industry Relations at American Farm Bureau.

Emma grew up on her family’s farm in California and made her way to Washington, D.C. after college to begin her career advocating for America’s farmers and ranchers.

Emma leads the Ag Innovation Challenge, a national business competition that showcases American startups developing innovative solutions that address challenges facing farmers and rural communities. Listen to this episode as we get to know the top 10 Ag Innovation Challenge semi-finalists and talk about how these entrepreneurs are changing the agricultural industry for the better.  Thank you again Emma for joining us on the podcast today.

Do you want to start by sharing a little bit about your background and why you chose the agriculture industry?

WHY EMMA CHOSE AG

Emma:

Absolutely. Before I begin, I want to thank you for having me on here. It's an honor to speak a little bit more with you today, as well as with the folks that will be tuning in.

I was born and raised in California, Central Valley, otherwise known as the bread basket of the world, into a farming family. I grew up on the ranch, riding around with my dad and my grandfather. I would go to the coffee shop in the morning, sitting at the table with everyone, and changing the water at all times of the night. I really understood what it took at a young age to not only be a part of this profession, but also the lifestyle that comes with it and I was hooked.

In high school, I became involved in my high school's FFA chapter, was an officer and held different leadership roles. After high school, I went on to study Agricultural Communications at Cal Poly. Those four years couldn't have been better or have gone by more quickly.  I was lucky to have a great mentor during those four years, Dr. Vernon, who really encouraged his students to say yes and get involved. We actually still keep in touch to this day.

During all of those experiences, it was incredibly clear to me that this industry truly has the best and most genuine caring people that you can find from coast to coast and in all regions in between. Farmers and ranchers are truly the salt of the earth and I'm reminded every single day that it's a privilege to work on their behalf in DC.

Katie:

Yes, I couldn't agree with you more.

How did you end up going from California to Washington DC?

Emma:

It really stems back all the way to college for me. When it came to summer internships, my parents were incredibly supportive of me gaining new experiences, even if it meant it was a few miles or a few thousand miles away from home. Two pivotal summers really come to mind.

The first was spent in Denver, working for Agrium, now known as Nutrien. The second took me to Kansas City where I interned at Osborn & Barr, the marketing agency. Each of those experiences and opportunities really helped shape my career, but also served as a springboard for what was next.

I graduated school and took a marketing role for a crop input company in Phoenix, and then a year or so into that role I met Sarah Brown who would later become my boss at the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Georgia. A few short months later, I packed up my bags and headed east to work for American Farm Bureau. It really did happen in the blink of an eye.

Katie:

Wow, that sounds like quite the journey, and you had a lot of different experiences along the way.

How did you end up then becoming the Assistant Director of Industry Relations at American Farm Bureau Federation?  Was that your first job or did you have previous roles at AFBF?

Emma:

I did have a previous role at American Farm Bureau, but also in the Industry relations department. The industry relations department was initially one person, my former boss, who was growing external affairs. She was growing our discussions with supply chain companies, running the Ag Innovation challenge and managing sponsorship revenue as well. She needed more staff help and made a really good business case to bring me on board. She was from upstate New York, a Cornell grad and an eighth generation apple farming family. With my west coast roots, it was the perfect combination to be a team of two. We call ourselves the dream team. It was a wonderful experience.

Katie:

It’s funny you say that because our marketing department here at Horizon Farm Credit refer to ourselves as the dream team too, especially when we get done a campaign or a project that we're really proud of.

Can you give a little detail into your current role and what it entails? Do you have any programs or campaigns that you're currently working on or have upcoming?

WORKING AT AMERICAN FARM BUREAU 

Emma:

In my current role, I lead the execution of industry relations projects and initiatives. I serve as the external contact for supply chain companies and manage the sponsorships for not only the American Farm Bureau Federation, but the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture events and programs. One of the special programs that I do and have the opportunity to lead is the Ag Innovation Challenge, which of course is what we're here to talk about today.

Katie:

Thank you so much.

Can you share a little bit about what the Ag Innovation Challenge is and give a little background on the program?

AG INNOVATION CHALLENGE

Emma:

The challenge was first launched in 2015, and it was the first national business competition of its kind that was focused exclusively on rural entrepreneurs. Since its inception in 2015, it's now evolved into really showcasing US startups that are developing innovative solutions that address challenges facing American farmers, ranchers and rural communities.

Each year, we look to identify the top entrepreneurs addressing both traditional and new challenges that farmers and ranchers face every single day. In 2021, we hit a large milestone as Farm Bureau has officially awarded more than $1 million in startup funds to innovators across the nation. We're really proud to share that externally.

Katie:

Wow, that's really exciting. That's a lot of money given towards a great leap in the industry.

How do you go about finding these entrepreneurs?  Is there a certain application and judging process in the program?

Emma:

Yes, there absolutely is. It all starts with submitting an application and throwing your hat in the ring. The application typically opens in the spring time, and from there we work with Farm Credit Rural Investment and Innovation Workgroup to vet these businesses. They evaluate their business models, novelty, viability, and strategies.

Lastly, but most importantly, is if the innovation or business is addressing a relevant and high priority issue that's facing Farm Bureau members and Farm Credit customers. Once those teams are announced, they'll participate in individual pitch training from Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, which happens in the fall. From there, the teams will go on to compete live at the American Farm Bureau Convention in January of each year. It will take place in Atlanta, Georgia for 2022.

Katie:

That’s exciting!

There are 10 finalists, is that correct?

Emma:

Yes, there are 10 semi-finalists. We're really excited to have them join us in Atlanta this year.

Katie:

Once the finalists are chosen, what is the top prize?

Emma:

In total, Farm Bureau awards $165,000 in prize money to these 10 businesses, which of course is made possible by our generous sponsors. Competitors do accrue money as they advance through the program, but I'd like to call out three prizes.

The first is the Ag Innovation Challenge winner, who will win $50,000. The second place prize will win $20,000. The People's Choice team, selected by a public vote, will win an additional $5,000. $165,000 is a lot of money on the table, and we distribute it to the 10 teams as they advance through the competition.

THE 2022 TOP 10 SEMI-FINALISTS

Katie:

I do agree, that is a lot of money. I've attended the AFBF annual meetings in years past, and I have been able to witness the semi-finalists giving their pitches. They're all such incredible entrepreneurs, programs and organizations. I found it nearly impossible to choose a winner. I do know that they all have a great impact on Ag innovation.

I'm really excited to hear from you about the top 10 semi-finalists for 2022.  I thought we could go down the list, and you could give our listeners a summary of each semi-finalist.

Do you want to start with Birds Eye Robotics?

Emma:

Birds Eye Robotics is based out of Nebraska and is led by Scott Niewohner. Birds Eye Robotics has developed an autonomous robot, Birds Eye, that removes bird mortality, tills up caked bedding and improves overall animal welfare by stimulating bird movement for the poultry industry. It is really an exciting innovation for the poultry industry, especially as labor challenges continue to persist.

Katie:

That does sound really interesting. For a lot of our listeners here in the MidAtlantic region, poultry is a very prominent commodity in agriculture. I know that's going to be really interesting for our listeners to look into.

Emma:

Absolutely.

Katie:

Up next we have Caravan Tech.

Emma:

Caravan Tech is based out of Alabama and is led by Richy Naisbett. They are developing a tool to help the real time livestock tracing and a multitude of other farm management applications. Caravan Tech’s three flagship products working in unison are the Smart Ear Tags, intraruminal bolus and Caravan Chat system. They're really helping the traceability and sustainability piece of livestock management.

Katie:

That sounds really interesting. I'll have to read a little bit more about that one.

Up next, we have is CHONEX.

Emma:

CHONEX is led by Michael Lynch and is based out of Alabama. They're a soil health company that's developed a biological, proprietary process for upcycling poultry manure. They're taking that manure and really turning it into a concentrated microbial bio-stimulant used to improve soil health by increasing soil microbes. This is another poultry sector innovation, but something that's very different from the autonomous robot that's helping stimulate animal movement.

Katie:

That's a whole other side to poultry, but also equally important.

Emma:

Yes.

Katie:

Next we have ExciPlex.

Emma:

They are based out of West Virginia and Daryl Staveness is the team lead. They are developing a diagnostic technology for the on-site detection of mycotoxins in animal feed and feed inputs. This technology is designed to operate at every level of the feed production chain, thus a single core invention will deliver multiple solutions to a variety of customers.

Mycotoxins are an issue that faces many grain farmers and the livestock side, where folks are wanting to ensure that they're feeding their animals the best and most nutritious quality of food.

Katie:

I know animal nutrition is a really hot topic, so that'll be something that's really important and I'm excited to learn more about.

Next we have Grain Weevil Corporation.

Emma:

Chad Johnson leads the Grain Weevil Corporation team based out of Nebraska. It is a grain bin safety and management robot that directly engages the surface of the grain by leveling, breaking crusts and conducting inspections. Not only does it impact the quality of stored grain, but it also improves the farmer well-being by controlling risks, controlling costs, and most importantly, removing the farmer from the bin.

We constantly hear about farmers and grain bin entrapment, so it’s nice that this robot will go in there and do the work for the farmer. The farmer will stay safe out of the bin and will no longer need to get in there and face any risks.

Katie:

We partner with Nationwide Insurance every year and sponsor Grain Bin rescue tubes for our local fire departments. Like you said, unfortunately the entrapment of farmers in the grain bins is a big issue. This innovation would be very helpful for their safety, as well as keeping the grain clean and getting data.

Next is Marble Technologies.

Emma:

Britany Wondercheck leads this team and they are based out of Nebraska. They are developing a robotics solution that reduces the labor needs, specifically in the meat packing industry and those facilities to improve workplace safety by conducting tasks with a history of worker injury.

They're using computer vision, artificial intelligence, and sensing technology to help automate these tasks in meat processing, beginning with a task of packing vacuum-sealed meat into boxes.

Katie:

That’s also a very timely innovation with losing a lot of the meat processing employees to the pandemic and just not having as much access to the work.

Next up is NEK Supply.

Emma:

NEK Supply is led by Blake Chance and they are based out of Kansas. Blake has developed the Quick-Pin design that allows tractors to be quickly, easily and safely unhooked from an implement, especially in cases of emergency.

By removing the Quick-Pin’s top shaft, hopping in the tractor and releasing the pressure, the main shaft will fall out allowing the tractor to become quickly and easily unhooked from the implement. This invention was developed with balers catching on fire and needing to get the tractor away from the implement as quickly as possible. Blake’s Quick-Pin has been a really wonderful solution, and he really prides himself on keeping the manufacturing here in the United States.

Katie:

That sounds like a really good safety feature that all tractors and equipment should have.

Next, we have Propagate Ventures.

Emma:

Propagate Ventures is led by Ethan Steinberg and are based out of New York. They are developing an agroforestry platform that makes it easy for farmers and ranchers to access the operational know-how, implementation tools, financing and off-take agreements needed to reduce business risks while integrating fruit, nut and timber trees with animal or crop farming systems.

They go on operations and look at how they can introduce native vegetation, trees and shrubs. This helps all the carbon sequestration concerns that we're hearing about these days.

Katie:

That sounds very interesting.

Next, we have StemPunk.

Emma:

StemPunk is based out of Pennsylvania and led by Leighton Rice. It is the world's first hand-free, dual-dexterous, apple stem-clipping device to reduce stem punctures in fruit. The unique, patented design adds a large measure of efficiency to the process of harvesting high-value, fresh apple varieties.

Farmers receive the highest dollar for the quality of their fruit, so when there're stem occur, they receive a lower quality grade and a smaller dollar amount. StemPunk really helps ensure that farmers are getting the largest bottom line as possible, but also making sure that their quality of fruit is as high as it can be.

Katie:

I'm going to be honest with you, this one sparked my curiosity ahead of time. I visited their website and watched some of their tutorial videos and it was really neat.

Last, but not least, we have Vulpes Agricultural Corporation.

Emma:

Vulpes Agricultural Corporation is led by Rick Shang and is based out of Missouri. They are a manufacturing startup that has developed Carbon Black Acid, a fertilizer additive, through their accelerated R&D process.

Carbon Black Acid turns agriculture waste such as corn cob, sawdust, and sugarcane bagasse into carbon sources that the soil and crops can use. It also modifies the carbon sources into carriers of nutrients and water. It is really neat that they're using Ag waste and turning it into fertilizer.

Katie:

That is definitely super environmentally friendly and sustainable too.

Emma:

Absolutely.

IMPORTANCE OF INNOVATION IN AG

Katie:

Thank you for going over the top 10 semi-finalists for us. It sounds to me like all of these innovations revolve around technology. I know that's something that the industry has seen really grow the past few years.

Why do you think innovation is so important in our industry?

Emma:

Innovation is really critical to the future of agriculture. It's why the industry has been able to continue to sustain a growing population with the shrinking amount of arable land. I think of my family's operation and how it started.

My grandfather certainly doesn't farm the same way as he did when he first started and the same goes for my father. The industry has made some amazing advancements and strides, and will continue to push the envelope and all of that is because of innovation and technology.

Katie:

I could not agree more and I love seeing the transition. I'm sure with you growing up on a farm, you've been able to witness it all firsthand.

Emma:

Absolutely. I think of when I was on a tractor with my folks in my earlier years. Now you push a button and the GPS does everything for you. The rows are straight, and you don't have to worry about white knuckling and making those rows straight yourself. That advancement has been an absolute pivotal thing for the industry.

Katie:

Exactly.

Where do you see the future of Ag heading in the next 10 to 20 years with all of these innovations?

Emma:

I see the industry continuing to innovate and adapt as the need arises. There are innovations and technologies that we haven't even dreamed of yet. I think if you asked my grandfather if he could press a button and have a tractor drive a straight row for him, he would have thought you were crazy.

Farmers and ranchers are the most resilient people that I know. I have no doubt that they will continue to persevere and meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Katie:

I agree. I think it's funny too, because when people look at the stereotypical picture of a farmer, they don't really think of them to be technologically advanced. The equipment used by grain farmers are used with GPS and computers for precision agriculture, are far more advanced than a lot of other industries. It always amazes me how they embrace the new technology.

Emma:

Absolutely. That really gets back to the mission of the American Farm Bureau Foundation, which is Ag literacy and Ag education. It's not old MacDonald with a pitchfork. It's the farmer you see today, who are in the field.

They're using technology, went to college, and have specialized education for their certain field. They are running diversified operations. We have pistachios, wine grapes and processing tomatoes. They have irrigation systems, fertilizers schedules and are managing a multitude of things. It’s not Old MacDonald anymore.

Katie:

Exactly. It's Young MacDonald and Mrs. MacDonald now.

Emma:

Yes, exactly.

Katie:

I love that.

How are these top 10 semi-finalists in the Ag Innovation Challenge contributing to that shift that we're seeing in the industry?

Emma:

This year's teams, along with previous program participants, are all developing innovative solutions. It might be in the same sector, but its different challenges that are being addressed.

These are all challenges that farmers and ranchers are facing. These innovations will continue to move the industry forward. Celebrating and elevating these entrepreneurs this year and every year, because these innovations will be the way of the future.

WHAT EMMA ADVOCATES FOR IN AG

Katie:

Celebrating and elevating, I love that.

We always ask all of our podcast guests the same sign off question before we end our conversation.

What do you advocate for in agriculture?

Emma:

With less than 20% of Americans living in rural communities and 1% of that being farmers and ranchers, my true passion is sharing the real story of agriculture. I want to ensure that the public understands where their food comes from and how it's grown.

Most importantly, ensuring that farmers and ranchers have a seat at the table, not only here in the beltway, but across the countryside as well. We want them to continue doing what they do best, and that's growing safe, abundant, and sustainable food, fiber and fuel for the globe.

Katie:

That's awesome. I think all of our listeners today can hear that passion throughout our conversation and agree with you wholeheartedly.

Emma:

Thank you for having me here today.

Katie:

Thank you, Emma. I appreciate your time.

Farm Credit EXPRESS, the easy equipment financing program offered by Farm Credit, has recently announced a new leasing program. The program was rolled out to their equipment dealer network on April 3.

“We’re excited to now offer this additional product to customers throughout our area,” says Mary Henry, district sales manager for Farm Credit EXPRESS. “We’ve seen the demand for a leasing option grow over the years. Leasing allows the customer more flexibility, while still providing them with the same service and support they would receive if they were to purchase and finance the equipment.”

The Farm Credit EXPRESS loan and leasing programs provide one stop shopping and quick financing to customers through their network of partner equipment dealers. Both programs offer financing for new and used equipment and competitive fixed rates. For those customer who take out a loan with Farm Credit EXPRESS, they have the opportunity to share in Farm Credit’s profit-sharing patronage program.

“The feedback we’ve received from our partner dealerships has been positive,” says Henry. “We strive to continue to offer the customer competitive options that will assist them in the decision-making process, and a program that is easy to use.”

LISTEN TO Emma's EPISODE HERE OR FIND US ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST LISTENING APP!

Summary

On this episode of the Farm Credit AgVocates Podcast, we interview Emma Musser, Pennsylvania State FFA officer. Emma will share her perspective through the eyes of a young FFA leader. She will share her journey of becoming a state officer, what this experience means to her and her creative opportunity to serve the future of agriculture.

In this episode, you will learn about the importance of National FFA Week and the efforts Pennsylvania FFA has organized to celebrate the memorable week.

Johanna Rohrer:

Welcome to the Farm Credit AgVocates podcast. I'm your host Joanna Rohrer, Marketing Specialist at Horizon Farm Credit. Today's guest is Emma Musser from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Emma currently serves as the State Chaplain on the 2020-21 Pennsylvania FFA State Officer Team. Emma began serving in her role since June. The Pennsylvania FFA Officer Team consists of seven young agricultural leaders serving over 13,000 members across the state. In her role, she is responsible for representing the organization at numerous industry functions, assisting with workshops and conferences, but more importantly, she is known for speaking up for agriculture and inspiring others to become young leaders. Emma earned her FFA Keystone degree and was a member of the 2018 Pennsylvania 4-H Livestock Judging Team. Emma's passion for speaking up for agriculture runs deep in her roots, along with her passion for art.

Please help me welcome Emma to the podcast. Hi Emma.

Emma Musser:

Hi Johanna. Thanks so much for having me on the podcast today.

Johanna Rohrer:

I wanted to just start out and ask for you to give us your 30 second elevator pitch for FFA.

WHAT IS FFA AND WHY IS IT SO AWESOME?

Emma Musser:

FFA is a student led organization whose mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success. I think FFA is awesome because it takes your classroom instruction combined with a project you have outside of school and then your whole FFA experience and just combines into an experience unlike any other experience you’ll have in your life.

Johanna Rohrer:

We know FFA is the combination of in-classroom instruction, but also that hands-on learning approach, as well as, developing your leadership potential over time. I know you grew up in the Elizabethtown FFA chapter as a high school student. 

DID YOU SERVE IN ANY LEADERSHIP ROLES DURING THOSE YEARS IN HIGH SCHOOL?

Emma Musser:

I loved FFA. My dad was in the program and my sister went through the program. When I was a freshmen, I was quick to join the Elizabethtown FFA chapter. Then, I was allowed to run for an officer position and I served as a Reporter that year. My junior and senior years, I was fortunate to serve as the President of the Elizabethtown FFA program. I kind of worked my way up the program and really had a lot of ideas that I was able to develop as I served as President those final two years. Outside of the FFA scene, I was active in the Lancaster County 4-H clubs. I served as Swine Club President and Beef Club President, among many different office positions throughout the years. My final positions, I was president in both of those clubs.

I was also active in the Lancaster County FFA program.

Where I come from each school and our County has their own FFA program. We then bring all those schools together to have a whole Lancaster County FFA program. In the Lancaster County FFA program, I served as Sentinel and Secretary. I was fortunate to serve in a lot of different leadership positions, but I also had some out of school activities. I was involved in Bible Club and I also square danced.  I really enjoyed square dancing. I did it with my cousins and we performed each year at the PA Farm Show.  I did hold a lot of leadership positions, but I also was able to have some fun.

Johanna Rohrer:

Wow, that sounds like such an amazing resume of leadership opportunities and positions that you were able to serve in. That brings me to thinking about what made you want to run for a State FFA Office? Obviously, here in the state of Pennsylvania, you get nominated through a nominating process, as you're interested in running for State Office.

WHAT MADE YOU CONSIDER TO RUN FOR STATE OFFICE?

Emma Musser:

This is a really tough question. Like I said earlier, I was super involved in the Elizabethtown FFA program and I truly loved each moment that I got to spend in my blue jacket in that program.  I loved it a lot because my older sister, she was two years ahead of me in school and she had really paved the road for me to find success. She really left big footsteps for me to fill, but I was fortunate to follow her path. Once she graduated, I was able to lead my younger sister in the FFA program. That family time and being able to spend time with my sisters, both doing something we were all passionate about was super important to me and something I really cherished. Running for state office, I was just excited for the opportunity to leave the walls of Elizabethtown FFA and the Lancaster County FFA and reach a much bigger platform that I could influence over 13,000 members. It was not something I'd really considered my first couple of years of high school, but into my junior and senior year, my advisors were super encouraging to me. They really thought it was something I would be good at and something they really encouraged me to pursue. One moment in particular that really solidified my thoughts and running for State Office was a friendship I had made my senior year. I took an Agriculture Mechanics course, something super outside my comfort zone. I was actually the only girl in the class. I had become friends with this sophomore FFA member. It was a friendship that was truly meaningful to me and touched me in a lot of different ways. He was a student that wasn't really good book-wise; he was more of that hands-on kind of guy. He began to fail in school, his girlfriend had broken up with him and he was just going through a really hard time.  I loved being able to be there for him to encourage him, to help him get out of his rough patch. It was after our banquet got canceled in May that he reached out to me and sent me this really, really amazing message about how I had really impacted his life and how he really appreciated me being there for him, and how I had inspired him to be involved in FFA and to get involved in agriculture and be a part of the community and a part of the industry. That message to me was so amazing and so thoughtful. I thought if I can make that impact on one FFA member, I can't wait to see how the Lord's going to use me on a platform like the State Office. That was kind of the defining moment that made me say, okay, I want to do this. I want each FFA member to feel the way that my friend felt in Ag Mechanics.

Johanna Rohrer:

What a good reminder for all of us to think about challenging ourselves to take that next step, but also for you, having that moment to be able to reflect and say “I know that I was able to impact one person's life in a positive way, and now I'm ready to take the next step and try to do it with more people.”  To have that ambition to not only put yourself out there and to try for State Office, that's such a great story. I really appreciate you sharing that.

You shared a little bit about your agricultural education classes. We've heard that you took an Ag Mechanics class, which kudos to you because that is something that I did not do in FFA and I mildly looked back on the years and wish that I had. I wanted to kind of shift gears a little bit. We know that FFA, one of the fundamentals is agricultural education classes, but the other side of it is what we call FFA Supervised Agricultural Experience’s or commonly said is SAE’s.

I'M CURIOUS WHICH ONES [SAES] YOU PARTICIPATED IN AND WHICH ONE WAS YOUR FAVORITE?

Emma Musser:

I was involved in three different SAE projects. I had goat entrepreneurship, which was basically raising and showing goats, swine entrepreneurship and beef entrepreneurship. My Supervised Agricultural Experiences were mostly to do with livestock. It was raising them and then preparing them to show at my local and state fairs. My favorite SAE project was my beef entrepreneurship project. I actually first began showing pigs in 4-H. I love showing pigs. It was so fun, but I always was interested in big beef. Showing market steers was something that really intrigued me. I was in sixth grade when I got my first market steer and it was a project that I fell in love with. Steers can be very tricky and very temperamental. You never know how they're going to react to certain things, but I was fortunate to have very tame ones. I spent a lot of time getting them to that point, but when they were tame, they were so sweet and I had them for about a year. My connection with them was much stronger than it ever was with my pigs. Beef entrepreneurship was definitely my favorite. It taught me a lot of things and I learned how to work hard. I had my own checking account. I remember I went to the bank when I was 16 and they said I was not old enough to have a checking account, but we fought for it and I was able to actually get one. I was writing checks, balancing that checkbook, which is something that is useful to me now and something that I will definitely continue to use in my future.

I also loved, and this is probably my favorite part; I know I talked about the connection with the animals, but I was able to raise livestock alongside my sisters and cousins. I didn't grow up on a farm. My dad grew up on a broiler chicken farm, but we moved off the farm. I was fortunate because I got to keep my livestock at my grandparents farm, where my dad grew up, but that's about 10 minutes away from my house. I didn't get that on-the-farm experience, but I did it in a different way. Getting to do that alongside my sisters and cousins made me feel like I grew up on a farm, but it was great to have that experience with them, to spend that time with them, and to build such close-knit relationships with them is something I will always cherish.

Johanna Rohrer:

I think back to the first time that I met your family and I met your older sister, Maddie, when she first started showing pigs in Lancaster County. I'm a little bit older than you Emma, so I had the opportunity to watch you grow up showing livestock here in Lancaster County. I have to say, when you're talking about family time with your SAE projects, I can totally relate to that because some of my best memories with my family was with my brother. My older brother showing livestock, and then going to shows with my family and having all of that time invested in our livestock projects. It takes a lot of dedication and it's a lot of hard work to do that really, really well. Thank you so much for sharing that. I think SAEs are such an important component of FFA because they help students and members get that application part of their project. You talked about getting your checking account, writing checks, being able to budget, doing your inventory and your record keeping; those are all skills that I learned at FFA and now I use them today in my career. There are many important life skills that you learned through those projects. It's not always about the livestock. It's more about the application of the project and the life lessons that you're learning.

The other side of FFA, we know that the FFA organization hosts agricultural science, food, fiber, and natural resource Career Development Events, or what we call CDE’s.

I'M CURIOUS WHAT CDE’S YOU PARTICIPATED IN. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE? LET'S TALK ABOUT THAT A LITTLE BIT.

Emma Musser:

Career development events are a great way to get involved in the FFA program and they provide some incredible opportunities. I was actually more involved in the leadership development side of things. FFA has those career development events, but we also have Leadership Development Event’s, which is like job interview and public speaking. The first Leadership Development Event I ever competed in was Creed Speaking.  I was a little freshman doing the FFA Creed by E.M. Tiffany. Like I said earlier, my sister really just paved the way for me. She actually competed in this exact contest. When she was going through it, all I ever heard was the FFA Creed, her and my dad would say it all the time. I knew as a freshman in high school that I wanted to do the FFA Creed, and this was my favorite. It just means so much to me because it opened a lot of doors for me. As a freshmen. I was scared, I was nervous and I didn't really know what FFA was. I knew I wanted to be there, but I didn't really know what I was doing. The creed just gave me an opportunity to be successful, to try something new, and to discover a talent that I had.  I didn't really know I was good at public speaking until I was very successful in the Creed. That opened the door for me to then compete in junior prepared public speaking, and eventually senior prepared public speaking. In senior prepared public speaking, you memorize a six to eight minute speech, and then you present that in front of a panel of judges. I was fortunate to place second in the state. Then I got to go to the Big E in Massachusetts, the Eastern States Exposition. That was just a very cool opportunity for me to experience. It was awesome to spend time with my advisors and a few other members in my chapter and get to go to a state I've never been to before. I had never been to Massachusetts or the New England area. It was so beautiful and so fun. The Creed had really opened my eyes and opened many doors for me to be successful. It was definitely the thing that got me too senior prepared and got me to experience that great opportunity.

Johanna Rohrer:

Public speaking is not an easy thing to do, but you obviously are very skilled in the subject matter.

DO YOU THINK THAT THOSE EXPERIENCES WILL HELP MAYBE GUIDE YOU INTO A FUTURE CAREER OR FUTURE INTEREST THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE?

Emma Musser:

Whatever I end up doing I would love if public speaking could be a component of that because it is something that I've really come to love and enjoy. It sounds kind of crazy because it is kind of a scary and daunting task, but it is something I would definitely love to do in my future career, if that's possible.

Johanna Rohrer:

You talked a little bit about traveling. You challenged yourself to compete at a bigger level with senior prepared public speaking, so that gave you the opportunity to travel and maybe see some new places that you hadn't been to before. You also get the opportunity to travel some in your role as a State FFA Officer. I know this year hasn't been normal, so you're creating some virtual chapter visits as well, along with some other virtual experiences for the students here in Pennsylvania.

WOULD YOU SHARE ONE OF YOUR MOST MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES ENGAGING WITH THE STUDENT MEMBERS HERE IN THE STATE?

Emma Musser:

You mentioned that this year looks very different than years before and it totally does. It's had it seasons of disappointment for me. I've had times where I'm just comparing to the past couple of years and wondering why my year doesn't look like that, but I know that I'm here for a reason and that I’m meant to be on this team this year for a reason. That just gives me a lot of hope. I've also had a lot of moments where I've been reassured that this is where I meant to be, and this is where the Lord wants me. Those have been such blessings throughout this year because the disappointment pairs with these awesome, eye-opening blessings, and it's been a year of growth and a year of learning. Something I've really enjoyed and one of my favorite experiences actually came towards the beginning of the year. My teammate and I got to drive four hours away to go to Otto-Eldred High School, which is in McKean County. We traveled pretty far, but Otto-Eldred had just started their FFA program this year. We were getting to go talk to students who really had no idea what FFA was. It was intimidating for me to have to share all that FFA is with these kids, but they were so engaged. Their eyeballs were glued to us the whole day. They were so fascinated with what FFA was and all they could do. It was just one of those experiences that just filled me and excited me because this group of kids might not have gotten the opportunity to be a part of FFA. They're just starting a new program so they get to experience something that is so beneficial to our youth and they are so excited. I know that they're at kind of a disadvantage because starting new and starting from scratch can be difficult. But if you have that passion, if you have that interest, they're going to go very far. Spending time with those students, getting to speak to them about something that I love and that I'm passionate about and having it be received so well and with so much interest and with so much excitement was something that I'll remember for the rest of my life. I just love the connection that I've made with them. I still try and stay connected with them over social media. This was definitely one of my all-time favorite visits and something that I was blessed to do.

Johanna Rohrer:

That is awesome that you were able to be a part of their first FFA experience and also for you to realize how important that moment is, not only to you, but also to them, because it's the start to their FFA experience.

WHAT DOES BEING A LEADER MEAN TO YOU? IN YOUR ROLE AS A STATE FFA OFFICER, YOU ARE IN A LEADERSHIP ROLE. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO YOU?

Emma Musser:

I actually got asked this when I was running for State Office. One of the members in the nominating committee asked me if I thought that leadership came with a title or position. This was something I had never really thought about. Something that I've come to learn and understand that being in a position of leadership or having a title of leadership means a lot. It’s a lot of pressure and it requires a lot of perseverance and character, but I've also learned that leadership doesn't come. You don't have to have a position or a title to be a leader. As a sister, I lead my younger sibling. As an employee, I can inspire the people who are older than me or younger than me. In every area of my life, I can bring that leadership component and I can show others, and encourage others, and take that leadership responsibility. That’s something I've come to understand and learn. As I'm in this position of leadership, I think it is important more than ever to stay passionate about what I'm doing. This year is so hard and I feel for all the students across Pennsylvania who are learning virtually, who are missing out on so many great opportunities, who got their Keystone and weren't able to attend Midwinter Convention at the PA Farm Show, and who zipped up their jacket for the first time and didn't get to do it in a room full of people. It's hard for me, but I know it's harder for them. That's something that I'm coming to learn and understand that while I'm in this position of leadership, I just have to remain passionate and remember why I'm here, why I'm doing this and I'm doing it for the members. I think that being a leader is being someone that these students can look up to and see positivity, happiness, and joy in, even though this year is full of so much less than what we anticipated.

Johanna Rohrer:

Yes, this year has challenged so many of us in different ways. You're definitely not alone, but what a cool way to talk about leadership and to reflect on the responsibility that you've been given in your leadership role. You're exactly right, leadership can mean so many different things to different people, and you have the opportunity to be that role model and that good influence. I always talk a lot about trying to be a good influence to my colleagues that I work with or to the industry partners that I get the privilege to have a relationship with or with my family. Being a good person and being able to contribute to the betterment of my community is really important.

Emma, we're going to transition over to National FFA Week with a new question. National FFA Week is coming up February 20th to the 27th. For those of you who don't know, National FFA Week is a time for FFA members to host activities that will raise awareness about the role FFA plays in the development of agriculture's future leaders and the importance of agricultural education.

WHAT PLANS DOES THE FFA HAVE IN PLACE TO HELP PROMOTE THE WEEK?

Emma Musser:

Pennsylvania FFA during National FFA Week is planning to do virtual and in-person visits. We sent out a sign-up sheet to teachers and they can choose to have us come in person, which we would love to do, but also if that's not an option because of COVID and all the restrictions, we're also offering a virtual platform. We are more than excited to spend some time with our chapter, whether that's in-person or virtual. Talking with them, chatting with them, either giving a speech or running a workshop. We're excited to see how they're celebrating National FFA Week and spending some time with them. We're also planning to release chapter challenges each day. Each day of the week we'll have a challenge for our chapters to complete and then hopefully we can offer a prize at the end of the week for those that did each challenge and then enter them into a drawing. We're still in some of those planning stages for other things that we want to do, but we're really taking advantage of this virtual platform. In years past, we couldn't visit as many chapters during National FFA Week as we can this year because of the virtual platform. We are engaging more members, more people, and more classrooms. We're super excited to visit with everyone and to celebrate National FFA Week together.

Johanna Rohrer:

WHEN YOU PUT ON YOUR BLUE AND GOLD JACKET, WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD ABOUT?

Emma Musser:

When I put on my blue and gold jacket, I'm very proud to be a part of the future of agriculture. Through COVID-19, this whole quarantine, and this season of life that we're in, we have learned that agriculture is such an essential business. When more people are understanding that their food doesn't come from the back of the grocery store or any part of the grocery store, it comes from farms. I think that just being a part of an essential industry that feeds, that clothes, that provides for so many people, is something that makes me so proud that when I zip up my blue and gold jacket, I just can't help but to smile that I get to be a part of agriculture. I've found my place in the industry. I just pray and I hope that each member who zips up their jacket and puts that blue and gold on that they can see that they are part of something so much greater than just themselves or their FFA chapter or Pennsylvania FFA. They are a part of agriculture. I pray that each person can find their place, find their passion and learn and grow from the FFA and from the agriculture industry.

Johanna Rohrer:

I think there are a lot of us out there that are FFA member alumni that are now able to say, we work in the community and we once wore that jacket too. It may have been a few years ago, but the organization just plays such a huge role on building the leadership and also the skillset of future young leaders that are going to come back and lead the agricultural industry and also be huge components of our communities.

I KNOW THAT YOU HAVE EQUAL PASSION FOR BOTH ART AND AGRICULTURE. I'M CURIOUS HOW YOU USE THAT TALENT TO INFLUENCE YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO YOUR COMMUNITY?

Emma Musser:

I love this question. Art and agriculture are definitely my biggest passions. I've had many opportunities to combine them, which is something, so special to me. One way that I really use my art talent was this summer. Our fair was canceled, so we got together with a group of livestock parents and community members and we put on this Old Line Youth Livestock Exposition. It was really cool to see all these people come together in my community for the youth who are showing livestock for the future of agriculture. I loved it so much. It just made me so excited and made me so proud of where I come from and who I'm surrounded with and who I get to work with.

I was fortunate to serve on this board of directors. On this board, we had people who were doing our financials. We had people who were more secretary positions who were getting everything in line and preparing for this show. It was so cool to see all these people use their strengths to come together and put on this livestock exposition. I was fortunate to use my strength of art. I got to design our t-shirts and our logo.  I also got to design the banners that were awarded to our champions and champion showman. Using my art combined with my passion and my Supervised Agriculture Experience of showing these livestock and raising these livestock was something I really never thought would happen. It was so cool to watch that all come together.

I also have used my art recently in this past week, I've had two student teachers reach out to me. They're both starting a blog and they wanted a logo to go along with it.  I was fortunate to be able to design that for them, so they can use it in their classroom and they can use on their blog to promote agriculture. That's another great way I've used my art. I also love to paint. I love to paint steers, cattle and livestock. It has just really cool to be able to combine my passion for agriculture, with my love for art.

Johanna Rohrer:

DO YOU THINK BEING CREATIVE DURING THIS PARTICULAR TIME HAS HELPED YOU TO SERVE THE FFA MEMBERS DURING THE PANDEMIC?

Emma Musser:

Most definitely.  I would say if we're going to be creative, now's the time to be creative. My director has told our team throughout this whole year that the book that we spent 90 years writing is out the window and we are rewriting it from scratch. We have a blank book and we get to write our own story, which is something that frustrates me sometimes. I get angry that I have to be the one to rewrite it, but it's also an incredible opportunity to do new things and to inspire our members in different ways and to connect with them in different ways. It's been a crazy opportunity to get that experience. I think being creative now, thinking outside the box and thinking how we are going to engage our 13,000 members and how we do that well has been a challenge, but also has been important. As the State Officer team we have released two series called “Inside the Jacket” on our Pennsylvania FFA YouTube channel. Our teachers have been showing these in the classroom to our students, and we also have a worksheet to go along with each video. We are pushing content for these teachers to use in their classroom because as hard as this year is for us, it's also really hard for our teachers. They're struggling in the exact same ways we are; how they are going to engage their students and keep their students passionate about agriculture education. “Inside the Jacket” is a great way to involve students and teachers to be able to aid our teachers in some content. Social media has been super important. I've gotten to use my love for graphics and art to work on our social media and to push posts out that keep our members informed about what we're doing and excited. It's been super fun. It's been a challenge to be creative, but a challenge that I have really enjoyed.

Johanna Rohrer:

I love the visual about how you have the opportunity to literally write a new book. Sometimes that's such a daunting task. I wish there was a playbook that could help me through this process, but deep down, you're sitting there and you're getting to create a moment that someone hasn't thought of in the past. It's nice to see you being able to use one of your strengths and to be able to create this experience for the rest of the FFA members across the state.

WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL COME NEXT IN YOUR JOURNEY AFTER SERVING AS A STATE OFFICER?

Emma Musser:

This is such a hard question. I have really been thinking hard about this probably since well before I graduated high school about what comes next for me. I've really enjoyed this gap year in between high school and college that I've used to serve Pennsylvania FFA. It's been truly a wonderful experience and I'm excited to take all these things that I've learned and all these strengths I have developed into the next season of my life, which I think is going to be attending Penn State. I want to go for Ag Science and minor in Marketing and Communications. Something I've learned that I love and enjoy is social media and making graphics. It doesn't come as natural to me as painting or drawing. It takes me a little bit more time, but it's also something that I think I would really enjoy whether that's making ads, designing ads or running social media for a company, or maybe even video editing. I think those are all really fun things and I'd love to continue to pair my love for art with my love for agriculture. Hopefully those two can come together effortlessly into a career.

Johanna Rohrer:

That's an awesome way to look at your future, leave the doors open. Coming from one marketing professional to another young person thinking about getting into the communication field in agriculture, it's such a great opportunity to combine your passion for art and also the communication piece. Those public speaking skills will never leave you. It's such a great opportunity. I have one sign off question for today for you. Emma, we always signed off all of our podcasts this way.

WHAT DO YOU ADVOCATE FOR IN AGRICULTURE?

Emma Musser:

In agriculture I advocate for the next generation of agriculturists. Being in this position of State Office has gave me such a platform and such an opportunity to advocate for this next generation, for the future of our industry. I am so excited to see the ways that this year has shaped our membership and shape this next group of people who are going to be entering the industry. If anything it has showed us that we are resilient and that we can persevere. Agriculture is so essential and that it's worth getting our hands dirty. I'm just super excited to see where this next generation takes us and where the future is. The future of technology and the future of efficiency. I am just so excited to be in the industry that I love to continue to advocate for it, to continue to speak out for the opportunities that agricultural holds and to continue to influence that next generation.

Johanna Rohrer:

We always talk about how the future is with our youth and in this industry, I’m a firm believer of that. I think our FFA program does an outstanding job at building our future leaders to help lead the organization that both you and I have grown to be so passionate about over the last few years. I thank you for your time today Emma, you did an outstanding job.

I just want to remind everybody that today over a half million students across the U.S. are engaged in a wide range of agricultural education activities leading to over 300 career opportunities in agricultural science, food, fiber, and natural resources. For more information about National FFA Week visit FFA.org, and remember to check out your local virtual FFA chapter celebrations next week to join in on the fun.

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As spring planting is soon upon us, we want to remind you that most corn and soybean policies provide replant coverage. Remember, once you have replanted a field, it is too late to file a claim. Replanting prior to receiving consent will result in your claim being denied.

If you find yourself needing to replant your crops this year, here are a few things to keep in mind:

CALL BEFORE YOU REPLANT:

A claim must be filed and the insurance company must be given time to inspect the damage prior to replanting the crop.

SELF CERT REPLANTS:

Our insurance providers offer an expedited claim process for replants that meet specific acreage requirements. Call your agent for details.

The requirements for self cert changed in 2020. The maximum acres allowed per unit was increased from 50 to 100. An adjuster must be assigned to review any unit with more than 100 acres being replanted.

WRITTEN CONSENT:

The insurance company must provide you with written consent prior to releasing acreage for replant. This includes crops that do not provide replant payments.

Don’t jeopardize your coverage.  Make sure to contact your agent right away when you have the first idea that you may need to replant. Find more details about replant coverage here.

Johanna Rohrer, Division Marketing Specialist for Horizon Farm Credit, was awarded as the winner of PFB’s Young Ag Professionals “Excellence in Agriculture” Award on November 19, 2019 at the organization’s 69th annual meeting in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

According to PFB, the award considers candidates who do not have the majority of their income subject to normal production risk. They recognize Rohrer’s “leadership ability, involvement with agriculture, and participation with Farm Bureau.” She is currently a member of PFB’s Young Ag Professional Committee, as well as the volunteer Newsletter and Website Editor for Lancaster County Farm Bureau.

“I enjoy having the opportunity to tell agriculture’s story as a marketing specialist and to support the Farm Credit mission to enhance our local community,” says Rohrer.  

In her role with Horizon Farm Credit as a Division Marketing Specialist, Rohrer works directly with the sales staff, coordinating outreach with our members and developing content. In addition to her volunteer involvement with PFB, she serves as a coach for the local 4-H program and works weekends on her family’s farm, which produces corn, soybeans, wheat, and tree fruit, sold directly to local consumers from the family’s farm market.

“We are very proud of Johanna for receiving this award and look forward to having her represent our organization and region at the national level,” says Jenny Kreisher, Director of Communications and Creative Services at Horizon Farm Credit. “She is an excellent leader and a true example of how Farm Credit’s employees are rooted in agriculture.”  

As the winner, Rohrer receives several prizes, including free lodging and registration for the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 101st Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas. For more information about the PFB Young Ag Professionals Awards, visit pfb.com/get-involved/young-ag-professionals.

Diversified income is an earning strategy that involves generating income from several different sources, rather than being reliant upon just one occupation. Sources of diversified income include, but are not limited to, the following: growing crops, raising livestock, construction, breeding puppies, and rent.

The main advantage of having a diversified income is the lower financial risk that comes with being dependent upon one source of income. For example, if there is a drought that affects corn crops, a farmer that grows corn, breeds puppies, and receives rental income from an investment property will typically be in a better financial situation than another farmer that only grows corn. This is because the portion of income that the first farmer receives from the puppies and rent will not be affected by the drought, whereas the second farmer’s entire income is negatively impacted.

Projected income refers to estimated earnings for a new business endeavor for which an individual has no record of past earnings to draw upon.

When submitting projected income for consideration, even though no historical record of earnings exists, it is helpful to have supporting documentation of the amount to be earned. For example, a signed lease agreement for a new tenant would be useful in indicating the monthly amount of income to be received by the landlord.

Farm Credit is unique in that we recognize all sources of income, including new business endeavors that do not have an earning history. We understand the importance of diversifying risk within your operation, and are here to help you make prudent financial decisions.

That being said, it is important to exercise caution when considering projected income. For example, does the life of the income match the life of the loan terms? Does the property need significant additional investments before it is able to generate income, and how do those investments alter the profitability of this venture? A prudent businessperson asks the question before diving into a venture that is outside their means.