Starting- The First Stage of Growth

Hello and welcome to How We Grow. First and foremost, thank you. Thank you for
taking the time to read this and I hope it provides value to you. This is a platform to
discuss the various ways people in agriculture grow food, families, and themselves.

I have been blessed to meet many great people in agriculture throughout my relatively
short time in the industry. I want to bring those people, their farms, their thoughts,
opinions and voice to the public in a way that makes you think. This platform will feature
various other terrific people with great stories and even better perspectives.

So who am I? I am a 6 th generation family farmer who is raising (hopefully) the 7 th
generation on our farm in central Illinois. I have been a part of a farm family for my
entire life, but returned to farming full time about 8 years ago. I didn’t intend to come
back to the farm. But I spent a couple of years away from it and felt the strong draw
back to it. On top of being incredibly rewarding personally, it also gives me the
opportunity raise a family at a little slower pace than the world seems intent on today.

Now that I have told you a little bit about me, let me tell you what I am not.
I’m not an expert.
I don’t hold advanced(or basic even)degrees in the field of agriculture.
I don’t have decades of experience.
I am not a professional writer.

But I am willing to learn.

I am willing to ask questions.

I am willing to fail.

I am willing to
be wrong.

And, hopefully through all of this I can learn a little and you can too because
that’s How We Grow.