By DEBORAH BEHRENDS
Illinois Correspondent CERRO GORDO, Ill. — American Agri-Women (AAW) elected Cheryl Day of Cerro Gordo as their secretary at the organization’s annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, in November. Though new to the position, Day is far from a newcomer to agribusiness.
She is a third-generation agriculture producer from central Illinois. The youngest of five children raised in rural Petersburg, Day said both her parents came from farming families.
When her grandfather retired, her parents inherited the grain elevator where they both worked – the last privately owned elevator in the area. They also owned and farmed land in Mason County. As teenagers, she and her siblings worked at the elevator and chose to raise different types of livestock.
“I say ‘chose,’ because my parents encouraged us to experience life, but did not push,” Day said. “Raising livestock taught me many lessons in life: responsibility, hardship and tough decision making. I had to pay my own feed bill and take less at the 4-H auction because my parents, as my feed provider, did not bid on my animals.”
Her background includes 4-H, FFA and the Illinois Junior Angus Assoc., holding key offices, including 4-H Federation president and Illinois Angus Queen.
“These organizations prepared me for the real world. While my parents were available for support, any volunteer effort was solely my decision,” Day said.
She said her husband, Mike, farm 250 acres of his mother’s and aunt’s land. The grain farm is incorporated into a family farm of 3,600 acres. He also holds a full-time job in retail fertilizer and chemicals.
With a degree in ag business from Illinois State University, Day is the executive director for the Illinois Assoc. of Drainage Districts and freelances as an agriculture communicator. Along with AAW, she is active with the Illinois Agri-Women, Illinois Angus Assoc., American Angus Assoc. and serves as a Macon County 4-H leader.
“I like to think I am the modern agriculture woman. I joke that there are some days I change my clothing three times,” she said.
“In one day, I may meet the vet, a politician and shuttle a kid. Many in our town cannot figure out what I do. One minute I’m covered in manure, and the next, in a suit.”
She and her daughter, Sierra, raise Angus cattle. Sierra is 11; Day’s son, Chayton, is 5.
She identified what she believes are the top three issues facing American farmers in 2009. The first she calls “the common sense factor,” which she believes has left all levels of government and research projects.
“Regulations are based on emotion and not sound, verified science. Agriculture producers are facing unnecessary regulations that not only hurt the project line, but devastate the agriculture industry,” she said.
Her solution: “As agriculture producers, we need to quit feeding the hysteria and educate, educate, educate.”
The second issue, she believes, is shrinking farmland acreage and loss of the family farm. “In general, we are losing farmland at an alarming rate. My farming operation sits in the nation’s best soil, but the subdivisions and Walmarts are swallowing prime farmland. Urban sprawl is forcing us to produce more bushels on less acreage.
“The lack of zoning to protect farmland and absentee landowners getting greedy also contribute to the loss of farmland.”
The third is the farm economy in general. “The cost of inputs is not dropping as fast as commodity prices. Justifying to the bank to lend funds to continue farming can be a hard sell for a farmer.
“As a livestock producer, I am not complaining about low grain cost, but in the current economy, it is also affecting the dollars being spent at the production cattle sales this winter.” December 31, 2008 |
