Kyburz inducted into ISPFMRA Hall of Fame

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A longtime member and mentor to many through decades of service to Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers was named to the chapter’s Hall of Fame during its recent annual meeting.

Dean Kyburz was presented with the honor by Seth Baker, chapter immediate past president.

Baker cited Kyburz’s many years of service as a member and employee of the First National Bank of Decatur where he began as a farm manager and appraiser in 1987.

Through mergers the First National Bank later became Main Street Bank and Trust and eventually Busey Bank.

“Through those many years Dean was the mentor to many professionals who were new to the farm management and farmland appraisal industry. He taught them well,” Baker said.

Kyburz, who retired in 2019, was a licensed general appraiser. He also obtained his real estate broker and managing broker’s licenses and served as the managing broker for Busey Farm Brokerage.

He is a graduate of Southern Illinois University with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education and master’s degree in agricultural economics.

“It gives me a lot of pride that they recognized that I did a decent job.”

—  Dean Kyburz

He was born and raised on a dairy farm in Chatsworth. He was originally employed by the Federal Land Bank of St. Louis, working in the Mt. Vernon office and later moving to the Carmi office. He then moved back to his home area where he was an appraiser for several insurance companies before joining the First National Bank of Decatur.

“I’m totally amazed and surprised because there are a lot of worthy people in the organization and I’m surprised to be one of them picked,” Kyburz said after the announcement.

“It’s been a great profession for me, a good combination of my background. I thoroughly enjoy working with landowners and farmers. It gives me a lot of pride that they recognized that I did a decent job.”

Through The Years

Kyburz has been on the ground floor of countless changes throughout his career.

“I farmed earlier in my career and there’s an unbelievable difference now. I’ve been retired for two years and I can’t believe the changes just in two years. Things seem to be changing faster and faster as time goes on,” he said.

“We only had one cash rent farm when I started and there’s been a shift toward more cash rents and the type of cash rents changing from straight cash rent to flexible rents. There is still some crop share and it’s still a good way to go, but there’s definitely a trend toward different types of cash rent.”

Kyburz has enjoyed countless benefits from his many years as an active member of ISPFMRA.

“There are tremendous benefits from it, not only the education part of it, but invariably I’d come back from meetings valuing the interaction I had with all of the members, picking up different things that different shops did to be competitive in the field,” he said.

“It has a lot of educational benefits, not only toward the appraisal and real estate licenses continuing education, but also, as with today’s conference, some workshops on transitioning farmland and other topics.”