The new crop of Indiana Master Farmers has been honored, and the names include Mark Kingma, Randy Matthys, Scott Smith, Kent and Isabella Chism, and Phil and Cindy Ramsey. But there is a new Honorary Master Farmer who knows the program very well.
Jim Mintert, retired director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture, spent many years interviewing Master Farmers at the awards ceremony when it was paired with the Farm Management Tour.
“It’s a great program to honor people that have had a very productive career, and the idea that they can share some of their expertise with people, I think is really the big thing that I like to think about,” he explained. “You know for years I conducted the panel discussion at this event, and I always found the responses individuals gave to the questions very helpful. I used to ask people what can I tell my students? And I picked up some good comments from people about things I could bring back to the classroom, and so I think the opportunity to share expertise of people who’ve been successful, and the variety of people in the program is always of interest to me as well.”
Mintert believes the common feature of all the Master Farmers through the years is that they are all people-people.
“Meaning that they enjoy working with not only family members but in many cases it’s employees on their farm. They figure out how to manage that farm operation in a way that they can make it productive not only for themselves but also for the people around them especially their families.”
Asked what the honor meant to him brought tears to Mintert’s eyes.
“Well, when you ask that, I get emotional. I wish my dad was here,” he told HAT. “I think he’d be very proud, and I can’t thank him enough for getting me interested and involved in agriculture.”
In the coming days you will hear from all of the farmers who were honored earlier this month at the Beck Agricultural Center in West Lafayette.
Indiana Prairie Farmer and Purdue University College of Agriculture co-sponsor the awards event.
(Pictured are Allison Lynch of Indiana Prairie Farmer, Jim Mintert and Bernie Engel with Purdue)
