INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — As a teenager, Kerry Dull told her family that she would never marry a farmer. Now, she is, living on a 2,000-acre farm – and even recipient of the 2014 Women in Agriculture Achievement Award.
"My dad won’t let me forget that," Dull told a room filled with farmers and other award recipients at the Indiana State Fair last week.
The Achievement Award from Purdue University extension honors women who are directly involved in a home farming operation. The Leadership Award was given to Elisha Modisett Kemp, of Marion County, for her leadership as government affairs manager at Dow AgroSciences and for her work formerly at the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), where she represented ag before the state legislature.
Dull said she went to the University of Nebraska to be a home economics teacher. After graduating, she taught school while living and working on the Boone County farm with her husband.
"My students used to ask me questions about chasing cows and working with hogs. Now I work full-time on the farm and love it. My goal is to pass it on to future generations," she said.
She is close to that goal. Several of her children have come back to the family farm to work on it. Dull is the bookkeeper and manager of Dull Family Farms, a 2,000-acre corn and soybean farm, which has expanded under her leadership to include a 30-acre Christmas tree farm, petting zoo and bed-and-breakfast that teaches guests how food gets from the farm to the table. She was nominated for this award by her family.
Dull still fields questions from students as she leads schoolchildren on tours of their farm operation and teaches Farm Bureau’s "Ag in the Classroom" programs in local schools.
Modisett Kemp has fond memories of growing up on a 1,200-acre cattle farm in Windfall. "The farm was all I knew. I was a 10-year 4-Her raising sheep and baking. One night I stayed up all night baking cakes until we ran out of ingredients and energy. I took the first cake in and won Grand Champion," she said to a room of nodding fellow former 4-Hers.
"After college I realized that 98 percent of people have no connection to agriculture. We have to spend time trying to educate that 98 percent. I work with many policymakers who don’t understand or appreciate what farmers do."
In 2005 Modisett Kemp became the first legislative liaison for the ISDA, where she advocated for bioenergy, livestock production, diversified agriculture, international trade, environmental stewardship and conservation. In her position with Dow AgroSciences, she works with multistate government officials to obtain product approvals, reconcile conflicts and advocate for science-based solutions.
She also chairs the State Affairs Committee of the crop protection trade association CropLife America, which assesses national legislation for its impact on modern agriculture.
"This is a day to celebrate agriculture and salute the thousands of women who help agriculture be what it is in Indiana," said Jay Akridge, the Glenn W. Sample dean of agriculture at Purdue University.
