A Year in the Life of a Farmer: Kindred sees firsthand ISA’s benefits for farmers

Follow the Kindred family throughout the entire year. Each month, look for updates about the family members and the decisions they make on their farm.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Ron Kindred has seen a lot of changes since he first joined the Illinois Soybean Association board over 20 years ago, but the organization’s focus remains steadfast in seeking new uses, expanding markets and guiding legislative policy.

The Atlanta, Illinois, farmer featured in AgriNews’ monthly “A Year in the Life of a Farmer” series attended ISA’s board meeting July 29 when the group elected new leadership that included Steve Pitstick, of Maple Park, as chairman, and Kindred as vice chairman.

Kindred reflected on his past and current stints with ISA during a break in the meetings.

His first term with ISA began in 2000 after receiving a phone call from staff member Rebecca Richardson.

“She said my name had been brought up by someone on the board as a possible candidate for the district. I had not served in any capacity other than being on my county’s Farm Bureau board. That was the only service I had done and that was back in my late 20s, early 30s,” Kindred said.

“I hadn’t served on a board for a long time, so it caught me off guard, but I was interested in what they did. I decided to come on board just to see what I could learn and see if I liked it or not. So, I agreed to do three years, which turned into 13.”

When he first was seated, ISA had two boards — the association and checkoff. The two boards merged in about 2007.

“When we merged my tenure started over, so that’s how I got 13 consecutive years on the board,” Kindred noted.

National Board

Kindred was elected to be Illinois’ representative on the American Soybean Association in 2004 while continuing his role with ISA.

“It was kind of nice because I knew what our initiatives were on the ISA board and I could take that to the national level and advocate for the Illinois positions at the national level. I think there was a lot of benefit to Illinois soybean farmers to have that connection to the national level. It was not only me. We had a couple of others who served in that capacity. So, we had a lot of communication, a lot of transparency between Illinois and ASA and I think that worked very well,” he said.

He termed off the ISA and ASA boards in 2013 and spent a few years out of the organization. But the phone rang again. It was from the ISA board member representing Kindred’s district.

“She decided to step down from her term and was looking for a replacement and asked if I’d finish out her term. So, I came back just to see if I still had the same fire and desire to learn that I had before. I found I did, so I’m still enjoying my service. I don’t know how long I’ll do it, but I’m enjoying it very much right now,” Kindred said.

Changes

Just like farming over the past two decades, he noted several changes in ISA.

“There are a lot of new faces and there are a lot of fresh ideas. There’s obviously more technology used today than when I was on the first time. I used to get a mailbox full of mail before each meeting and I’d have a stack that was probably two inches thick of papers to bring to the meeting and it was overwhelming. Now it’s all sent electronically on to your iPad and you just go that. It’s much easier. You still have a lot of information to look through but it’s much more manageable now than it was before and it doesn’t get lost in the pile,” he noted.

“The focus always changes as time goes on. You win some battles, so then you have to move on to the next challenge. Right now we’re trying to get a B20 (20% biodiesel) standard in Illinois because we see the governor tried to pull the biodiesel tax incentive in his last budget. We’ve got to be proactive and protect our biodiesel market.

“It’s just interesting to hear some of the viewpoints of the new directors. That’s why it’s still interesting to me because they challenge me all the time, make me think more, and that’s good.

“One thing that’s changed with the organization is we’re doing more activities in-house. We’re using less contractors. We have more employees. It’s a decision that our executive director has made and we’re seeing a lot of cost savings per hour on getting things done and so it’s freeing up more money for us to invest in other projects.”

Kindred believes the soybean organization plays a key role that benefits Illinois farmers.

“This organization oversees the checkoff investments that we collect and tries to make sure we’re investing those in projects that will provide a return for Illinois soybean farmers on their investment. Those projects are highly scrutinized. We do the best we can to make sure we don’t waste money,” he said.

“But along with that you have the policy aspect and it’s just as important as the investment of those checkoff dollars. Biodiesel is a perfect example. Checkoff dollars developed that product and promoted that market, but without policy in place to subsidize that market to get it started it would have never got off the ground. You need both.

“We spend a lot of time fighting off onerous regulations that are proposed. We’re always trying to protect what we have. This is a very, very good organization. I call it a great organization. It’s very well run and it’s done a lot of good for soybean farmers over the years and I don’t know where would be without this organization.”