On Thursday the McLean County Farm Bureau in conjunction with Illinois State University (ISU) cohosted a tour of of the University Farm. The farm is located in Lexington 18 miles northeast of Normal and is visible on the west side of I-55.
The event was hosted by the Farm Bureau largely for collegiate farm bureau chapter members who might not have had an opportunity to visit the farm. But the public was free to attend as well. Some of the public in attendance included parents of one of the student farm workers, a person interested in working on the farm and this journalist.
Jason Lindbom, Farm Manager told us the history of the farm, “Our ag department started in 1911. The original farm site was there where the Ropp ag building is and the farm was basically the whole athletic complex of what ISU has today.”
“In 1960 as the Town of Normal grew and the university was growing as well we moved out 0n the northwest side of town out on Gregory close by the ISU golf course and/or Normal West High School right out there,” Lindbom continued.
Lindbom said, “In the year 2000 the opportunity came up here for ISU to really expand their ag program as far as the farm property goes with the purchase of the Growmark facility up here in Lexington.”
Today the farm has 440 total acres. It has a beef heard of 100 cows, 120 sows and a sheep flock of 60 ewes. Corn, soybeans and alfalfa are grown on the farm. It sells compost for $40 per ton or $25 for smaller loads. The farm also supports teaching, research, and outreach activities of the Department of Agriculture.
The farm has 7 employees. Numerous students work on the farm for experience and extra money. Volunteer opportunities are also available for anyone interested.
Somewhat surprisingly a number of ag students do not come from a farm background. So the farm allows them to experience what they have been studying in the classroom.
Anna Ziegler, Assistant Manager of the McLean County Farm Bureau told us how students from non farm backgrounds become interested in agriculture saying, “There are job opportunities in agriculture, so sometimes it’s searching a certain job or career path and they wind up in agriculture.”
“Some of them have had ag classes in High School so though they didn’t grow up on a farm they still took agriculture classes and that peaked their interest so they wind up as an ag major here,” Ziegler continued.
Every once in awhile there are students that maybe they end up in an ag class as a credit fulfilling one of their gen ed requirements and something peaks their interest then from there they become an ag major,” Ziegler added.
