VINCENNES, Ind. — Agriculture is such a profoundly ingrained part of Susan Brocksmith’s life that she probably couldn’t shed it, even if she wanted to.

 

“Agriculture is deeply interwoven into the fabric of her life,” wrote her daughter Victoria, 25, in a nomination letter to Monsanto for the company’s 2017 America’s Farmers Mom of the Year award.

“Growing up on my grandfather’s farm, my mother worked with livestock daily and grew up to understand the meaning of family business. From this foundation, she continues to find new ways to help my father on our family’s farm.”

This love and commitment to the ag industry and her family garnered the Knox County woman the 2017 America’s Farmers Mom of the Year title. This program, in its eighth year, strives to “spotlight the significant and vital contributions farm moms make on their farms and in their families, communities and the agriculture industry.”

Brocksmith’s roots run deep in agriculture. She grew up on her parents’ – Rowe and Maridell Sargent’s – crop and livestock farm, where Maridell is still an active part of the operation. Brocksmith graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural systems management and went to work in ag sales.

“I decided to get out of the ag industry for a while in the (19)80s when the farm economy got so bad,” she said. “I went back to school and got my MBA.”

After earning her MBA from Ball State University and falling in love with Knox County farmer Mike Brocksmith, she migrated back to the Vincennes area and went to work for Golden Rule Insurance.

“However, I was presented with an opportunity at Vincennes University to teach in management and accounting,” she said. “After several years, I was able to start teaching in the agribusiness program, and have been there for over 23 years. For this I was blessed, because I could bring to the classroom real-life experiences and practical farm applications from our home farm.”

As VU’s Agribusiness Program Chair, Brocksmith said it’s inspiring to watch young men and women come into the program and blossom over time into professionals with great futures: “This is what education is for me.”

 

Besides teaching, she also is an advisor and club sponsor at VU, and she takes her students to study agriculture abroad. Her students learn about weed identification, cover crops, GPS and other technologies during field trips to P.E. Brocksmith & Son Farm, the corn and soybean farm Mike operates full-time.

“Mike took over the farm from his father and has grown it into a full-time career and teaching center for me,” Brocksmith said.

His parents are the late Paul and Barbara Brocksmith. He’s a fourth- or fifth-generation farmer, Brocksmith said, and she is a fourth-generation farmer. It was Mike’s idea to nominate her for the America’s Farmers Mom of the Year award, and Victoria and her sister, Casandra, 24, readily jumped on board.

“He has always been a huge supporter of my mother – and also my sister and me – in all that we do,” Casandra said. “He won’t like me saying this, but if there was a Dad of the Year Award, he’d deserve that as well.

“While our family knows how special my mom is, and we try to make her feel appreciated for all that she does for not only our family, but for her students and the community, we thought her hard work was deserving of more recognition than we could give.” 

 

Besides farming and teaching, Victoria said her mother is actively involved in community leadership roles, including volunteering on the county hospital board, as a church trustee, as an educator on the history and leadership of Knox County and on the Ag Day Committee.

“My mother is an advocate for agriculture in all that she does,” Victoria wrote in her nomination. “Agriculture comes only behind God and family, and my sister and I are blessed to have such a selfless and loving role model in our lives.”

Brocksmith was one of five regional finalists; the others were from Iowa, Nebraska, Utah and Mississippi. The finalists were selected by a panel of American Agri-Women and Monsanto judges. Each regional winner took home $2,000 for a nonprofit organization of her choice and $3,000 for her own use.

The national winner was selected by online voting. As national winner, Brocksmith received an additional $2,000 fora nonprofit of her choice. She’ll split her $4,000 donation among Helping His Hands, a local disaster relief organization and food pantry, and both the North Knox and South Knox FFA chapters.