TAKING ON THE BUSINESS OF FARMING

Andy Edson is always looking for ways to take his farming operation to new heights.

Even though he’s managing a farm two hours away from Ames while tackling a full class schedule, Andy Edson doesn’t see himself as an entrepreneur.  He says it’s how you approach business that defines entrepreneur.

“Some people think that anyone who starts a business is an entrepreneur,” says Edson, a junior in agricultural business. “An entrepreneur is someone who is innovative and tries to do things differently.”

Edson, who is part of the fifth generation to grow up on his family farm, plans to partner with his dad and perhaps run the operation in the future. It’s a transition they have slowly begun. Edson started farming 14 acres three years ago on their farm near Nashua, Iowa. In 2009, a neighbor asked him to farm another 600 acres.

“Paying rent and writing bigger checks was a new experience, but that’s how I learn,” Edson says.

Variable rate planting, auto-steer and field mapping analysis are just a few of the technologies Edson hopes to set up on his family’s farm in the future.

“There’s a lot of room to grow with technology and that’s what I’m hoping
to bring to the operation,” Edson says.

This year Edson attended the Beginning Farmer’s Conference where he learned about the Ag Decision Maker program.  It offers numerous decision-making tools to help calculate cost, returns, markets, outlooks and prices.  He says the conference is just one of many resources offered at Iowa State.

“It gives you the tools to evaluate the most profitable options,” Edson says.

Although he’s had to cut back on club activities, he’s continued to stay active in the National Agri-marketing Association. In April, the team attended the national competition in Kansas City and presented a marketing plan for a sub-clinical mastitis treatment. Edson says the product doesn’t contain antibiotics, so dairy producers wouldn’t have to dispose of milk after applying the product.

Edson also gained marketing experience during his summer internship at Insta-Pro International. The company sells oilseed processing and dry extruder equipment throughout the world.

“I collected data on existing markets and investigated possible ways they could expand their markets,” Edson says.

Edson’s story isn’t typical. Less than 15 percent of the college’s graduates plan to go into production farming. For students who want to farm, the Beginning Farmers Network student club offers resources and opportunities to meet with farmers and experts.

“There is a lot of interest in the student club,” says Mike Duffy, economics professor, director of the Beginning Farmer Center and club adviser.

More than 50 percent of Iowa’s farmers are over age 55. Duffy says resources like the Beginning Farmer Center and the student club are important because they can help retiring farmers connect with students like Edson and others who want to farm.

THE BUCK WON’T STOP HERE

Alle Buck, her parents, Roger (’75 farm operations) and Nylene, and her grandparents, Don (’49 farm operations) and Ruth recently restored their 120-year-old barn listed on the Iowa Barn Foundation All-State Barn Tour.

In 1894, Alle Buck’s great, great grandfather got off the train near Rhodes, Iowa and bought a farm with his brother. Today, Buck calls it home.

“We’ve farmed this land for over 100 years and it’s in my blood,” says Buck, a senior in animal science.

Buck is proud of her fifth-generation farm and even more proud that she’s a third-generation Iowa State student in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.  Her grandfather and grandmother met at Iowa State and together they raised six children who all attended Iowa State, but she’s the first woman to pursue a career in agriculture.

“My three uncles and my dad majored in agriculture,” Buck says. “It wasn’t easy for women to pursue degrees in agriculture back then, like it is now.”

After graduation this summer, Buck plans to build and run a swine finishing facility with her brother-in-law. Raising livestock has taught her about life. The key, she says, is putting their needs first. “If you take care of them, they’ll take care of you,” Buck says.

She knows farming isn’t an easy business to get into, but it’s what she’d like to pursue.  The Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative helped Buck understand the importance of global markets, creative thinking and innovation.  The initiative also helped her apply for a Beginning Farmer Loan to rent grazing pasture for her cattle.

“It’s not work to me,” Buck says.

“All my life I’ve spent the day doing something else and then I got to go home and farm. It’s a way of life and it’s what I love to do.”

Her sense of community is evident.  Walking across campus, she greets several students she’s worked with in clubs, learning communities and judging teams.

She’s also a known volunteer. She has dedicated a lot of time to the Block and Bridle club, and this spring she served on the college’s strategic planning committee.  She felt strongly about providing input, especially from the student’s perspective.

“I really care about Iowa State and I have a vested interest in its future,” Buck says.

Coming to Iowa State opened doors for Buck. She credits the learning community experience for connecting her with lifelong friends. Last summer she traveled to Greece with the entrepreneurship group and also visited Rome, Paris, London, Frankfurt and Munich.

“I’ve traveled to 15 states and five countries and I’d never been on an airplane before I came to college,” Buck says.

Buck says she’s found her college experience rewarding because she’s developed leadership and organizational skills, met with agricultural leaders and gathered a community of friends. It’s an experience and a community that she calls, “priceless.”

TRYING CY ON FOR SIZE

“When you put on Cy’s costume, it transforms you. It’s hard to describe, but you instantly perform.”- Matt Burt

Cy isn’t shy. Cy dances, hugs and throws high-fives to enthuse and entertain Iowa State University fans.

Matt Burt, a junior in agricultural business, has been watching Cy all his life. His parents and older brother went to Iowa State, and he grew up attending Iowa State games.

Burt always knew he would be a Cyclone.  He never guessed he would be Cy.

Last year he went to the mascot squad tryout so he could try on Cy’s suit just once before he graduated and say he’d been Cy for 15 minutes. After attending a meeting before try-outs he decided to take the challenge and compete.

“They gave us directions on how to plan a five minute skit,” Burt says. “It was very competitive.”

Along with running with the Iowa State flag and performing the Cy strut, Burt and his friends put together a winning skit. They had Cy working out to the theme song from the Rocky movie; challenging rival fans to arm wrestle, a tug of war, a race; and finally beating a University of Iowa fan in football.

After making the elite team of seven students, his first performance was a two-day tour promoting Iowa State with the athletic department’s coaches and administrators. Traveling in a first-class tour bus around the state, Burt says, “was amazingly cool.”

Cy the Cardinal, which is the mascot’s official name, first hit the field at a 1954 Iowa State homecoming game. Cy was the winning idea in a nationwide contest to find a mascot to fit the “Cyclone” role. Cy performs at every Cyclone sporting event and several off-campus special events.

Mascot squad members don’t get paid or receive special recognition, says Mary Pink, Iowa State University associate athletics director for marketing. She appreciates volunteers like Burt whose dedication and enthusiasm make Cy shine.

Squad leader Noelle Lichty, a senior in marketing, also appreciates Burt’s performances.  “I can always tell when Matt is in the Cy suit because he interacts with fans and he is always entertaining,” Lichty says.

Once students qualify to perform as Cy they are eligible to keep the position until graduation, which means Burt will perform the Cy dance until he graduates in 2012. He says he was looking forward to attending the games, but was surprised how different it feels to be on the field and part of the game.

“It’s fun and you feel more involved in Iowa State athletics as the mascot,” Burt says. “I traveled to the Kansas State football game and I thought it was amazing walking into Arrowhead Stadium.”

Burt’s most memorable moment, “crowd surfing,” Burt says. “My friends picked me up and I was passed halfway up the student section.”  Burt has tried to do the Cy dance for friends without the costume, but it just isn’t the same.

“When you put on Cy’s costume, it transforms you. It’s hard to describe, but you instantly perform,” Burt says.

When Matt Burt, a member of Alpha Gamma Rho, isn’t suited up as Cy he is involved in Greek Week and ISU Dance Marathon raising money for children’s charities.

Burt has also put his dance moves to work for a good cause. He was part of the Alpha Gamma Rho team during the ISU Dance Marathon held in January to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network and the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. The event raised more than $260,000 for the charities.

“It was special to hear the kids’ stories and how the money is helping their families,” Burt says.

Although he’s never auditioned for any other role, he has had experience in showmanship. The Marshalltown native was raised on a farrow-to-finish and row-crop farm and has shown livestock at the Tama County Fair and the Iowa State Fair.

Check out more photos of Matt Burt strutting his Cy Stuff.

SUSTAINING MEMORIES, NOURISHING THE FUTURE

Krista McCarty learned to love baking at an early age, making bread each Saturday with her mom.

Mixing, kneading and smelling the aroma of baking bread in the farm home where she grew up is a special memory for Krista McCarty.

It’s how she remembers her mom, who died of cancer when McCarty was just 11 years old.

“ We would spend Saturday mornings baking bread, just the two of us,” McCarty says.  In part, those memories inspired McCarty, a senior, to pursue a major in food science. She thought about becoming a nurse, but discovered food science after taking a tour of General Mills when she
was 13 years old.

She’s continued her focus on grains into her college career. This spring McCarty and the Iowa State University Food Product Development Team entered a gluten-free item into a national product development competition to be held in June.

McCarty came up with the idea, which must be kept top secret until after
the competition, after taking a glutenfree cooking class.  She says people with Celiac disease, also known as gluten intolerance, don’t have as many choices in the marketplace so products like this could have a competitive advantage.

“Our challenge is finding the right formula of flours and leavening agents to replicate the properties of gluten,”McCarty says.

Last fall, she and another product development team took a probiotic gum product to the American Association of Cereal Chemists competition The team took fourth place in the final round and gained the interest of several companies.  The gum was developed with a corn zein, a protein found in maize, which is environmentally friendly and promotes oral health.

“I love going to the grocery store to find the latest products,” says McCarty. “I can’t resist buying those products because I want to know what’s in them.”

She monitors the latest twitters on new food products, intellectual property, recalls and industry news. To satisfy her insatiable appetite to understand food product development, she’s planning to attend graduate school.

Next year McCarty will serve as co-president of the Iowa State University Colleges Against Cancer Organization.  This year she led the advocacy and education committee for the Relay For Life in March. McCarty worked on displays for the event and one display included a paragraph from committee members about why they participate.  McCarty posted this:

“I Relay for my mom.  She passed away from her three and a half year battle with cancer when I was 11.  I Relay for all children, so they may never experience the loss of a parent to cancer.  I Relay for all families who must go through the fight of having a family member with cancer.  I support the fight against cancer because I do not want anyone to go through the struggle of being told, ‘You have cancer.’  I Relay to encourage everyone to have hope because one day we will find a cure!”