Editor’s note: This is Part III of a five-part solutions journalism series exploring the future of farming in north central Ohio. Part I published on Jan. 31. Part II published on Feb. 1.
Noel Alden bought and moved to a dairy farm in Danville in 1999 from an operation based in northern Illinois.
While the Aldens were not new to dairy farming, they were new to Danville, which meant they needed to rebuild a local support system — finding a veterinarian they trusted, networking with equipment suppliers and other farmers in the area.
When asked what it had been like to restart in a new area, Alden said, “rough as hell.”
While Alden rebuilt a support system in a new place, others native to the region have rebuilt their networks in unfamiliar sectors of the agriculture industry, such as first-generation farmer Ashton Walls.
A Mount Vernon native, Walls already had a background working in agricultural equipment manufacturing before deciding to also take on part-time cattle farming.
“It’s been a slow start to getting involved,” Walls said, “and it certainly takes time.”
Even with an agriculture background, Walls had a winding path to production.
While future legislation may help first-generation farmers break into the industry by acquiring land, producers who have seen success say retention in the industry requires more than a point of entry.
For Walls, Alden and others, building community has been crucial to building a sustainable career.
Networking through established organizations
Land acquisition in the area is often dependent on connections.
For Knox County farmer Ed Piar, he rents land from his long-time neighborhood contacts.
For Richland County farmer Samantha Kline, family connections led her to the plot she now farms.
“(My husband’s) dad previously had leased from the owner, and so it was land already being farmed through the family name and then that person came to sell and we were the ones to buy,” Kline said. “It just came down to that built-in trust.”
Walls, on the other hand, did not have such connections.
“Even though I was from Knox County, I didn’t really grow up knowing a lot of local farm families and things like that, just because my family ourselves, we weren’t involved with that,” Walls said.
One of the first things Walls did after deciding to start farming was join the Farm Bureau, although she came to realize that membership at was also commonly multi-generational.
“A lot of folks talked about how they were kids growing up going to farm bureau meetings, you know, as tag-alongs with their families and things like that,” Walls explained.
But as Walls came to better understand the layers of Farm Bureau, she found a niche that more specifically catered to her background — the Young Agriculture Professionals.
YAP is a grassroots membership organization for Farm Bureau members between the ages of 18 and 35. The professions of YAP members vary, from producers to people who work in supporting industries.
“It goes all the way down to people who work in a grocery store setting that are involved in food chain supply,” Walls explained.
Walls, the action team leader of the Knox County’s YAP chapter, helps other young producers build industry connections and knowledge. Ashland and Wayne County also have a YAP chapter, headed by Lindsay Shoup Tournoux.
YAP members can apply for scholarships and programs such as AgriPOWER as well as attend statewide events, such as Winter Leadership Experience.
For instance, row crop producer Samantha Kline and her husband joined the Ashland and Wayne County chapter in their early 20s and have routinely attended the winter leadership conferences.
“That time is really used for bouncing ideas around, improving operations, getting to know more people,” Kline said, adding that statewide events have also helped make connections beyond her immediate geographic neighbors.
Locally, members dictate programming, Walls and Shoup Tournoux said.
For example, members in their late 20s in Knox County’s YAP chapter requested financial training, and the Ohio Farm Bureau worked with Farm Credit Mid America, a lending institution, to set up workshops.
Other programming is more focused on networking than education.
In February, for example, the Knox County chapter is partnering with nearby chapters to host a barn dance. By having multi-county events, members are able to expand their networks beyond their own chapter, Walls explained.
“(YAP) is also about socializing and talking to people in your county or in your area that are involved in ag,” Shoup Tournoux said.
But asking for help when you feel as if you are an outsider can be intimidating, Walls acknowledged. Regardless of what events the YAP chapters host, being a part of the group provides a network where beginning farmers can troubleshoot questions about health insurance, training, credit, etc.
Knox and Ashland County have seen participation in their YAP chapters grow in the last decade, specifically with the addition of interaction on social media, Walls and Shoup Tournoux said. Yet both YAP leaders know they are still only reaching a few of the beginning farmers in the region.
Alden, for example, is not a member of Ohio Farm Bureau.
“I’ve just been too busy to do that,” Alden explained, which is a common reason the YAP leaders cited for inconsistent involvement.
Alden said he knows most of the other farmers in the area through his work as a lawyer with Zelkowitz, Barry & Cullers, Ltd., a firm in Mount Vernon.
Regardless of how support systems are built, YAP leaders and farmers such as Alden spoke about how they are key to success despite unpredictability. This was seen in the fall when local farmers saw delays from supply chain disruptions and resorted to borrowing equipment or asking for help from others in the area.
Through work
Ashland agriculture teacher Tod Fox said his students are recognizing today they have to find innovative ways to enter the agriculture industry.
“I don’t know how somebody is going to be able to go out and buy a 100-acre farm anymore,” Fox said, but added that young people can enter the field and build knowledge by working for established farmers.
Cheyenne Anders is using this approach. Alden hired Anders, an East Knox product, to work on his dairy farm when she was 16 years old.
“I got my driver’s license and I had it for about two hours and I was talking to my mom about getting a job,” Anders explained. “She said, ‘Well, there’s a dairy farm right down the road,’ so I drove down there.”
While Anders’ family has raised animals on a few acres, she did not grow up on a family farm operation. She has had practice making connections locally from a young age because she would connect with farms to be able to show their animals at the fair.
Anders is still working at Alden Farms, as well as at Springhill Dairy in Big Prairie, Ohio, where she is learning to run a farm but also continuing to strengthen her connections within the region before planning to attend college.
Through college, or post-graduate programs
Ashland and Knox County educators said their students are increasingly pursuing higher education as a pathway into agriculture careers.
For several Ashland and Knox County natives, pursuing higher education has not solely been about gaining technical skills but also about making industry connections, which is the case for Anthony Gilmore, a 2019 East Knox graduate.
Gilmore’s immediate family owns a campground, and he had not been involved with farming or agriculture until he began taking classes in high school. Gilmore is now a part of Aggies, a collegiate 4-H club, and an agricultural fraternity farmhouse at Wilmington College, where he is studying ag-business with the hope to go into seed sales.
“If you don’t have the connections, you go to college, you learn more, you pursue internships, you go to all these conferences, and then you start building connections that way,” Gilmore said. “I knew I couldn’t just hop right into it, so I’ve had to build my own basis.”
Collegiate organizations have similarly allowed Taylor Pfeifer, Centerburg class of 2016, to connect with people in her desired career field — veterinary medicine — but also with people her age interested in agriculture outside her specific focus.
“Those clubs are cool because it’s part of medicine but it’s also part of the larger industry that is agriculture, and how we can each make everything kind of flow and ebb together,” Pfeifer said, noting others in the clubs were interested in wildlife conservation, fisheries, marketing, among other sections that contribute to the agriculture industry.
Richland County farmer and educator Samantha Kline also said FFA alumni chapters are a way to make region-specific connections, although not all Knox and Ashland County districts have alumni chapters.
“You’re giving back to the community and students, but that’s another opportunity to network and maybe get assistance or advice from other local producers,” Kline said.
Regarding other groups not tied to college, Anders is involved with the Beef Exhibitor Show Total program of the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association.
“It’s a show circuit for beef cattle, for beef heifers and steers, and you basically go to shows all across Ohio,” Anders said, explaining that it’s comparable to a mini county fair.
“There’s so many people that are in the program that you can speak to that just have so much knowledge you can learn from.”
While being a part of groups, such as BEST for Anders or Aggies for Gilmore, both said they have learned to never take a conversation for granted.
“Get involved, do contests, go out, just talk to people,” Gilmore said. “You never know what a conversation will lead to.”
Next: As interests and needs in agriculture change, so has agriculture education and operations.
