Schnitkey earns Service to Ag award

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers presented the 2023 Service to Agriculture award to Gary Schnitkey of the University of Illinois.

The presentation was made during the 2023 Illinois Land Values Conference, which is sponsored by the organization and was held on March 23 in Bloomington.

In making the presentation, ISPFMRA President Russell Hiatt cited Schnitkey’s continuing role communicating with agricultural producers and industry personnel, as well as the general public.

Schnitkey is a professor and farm management specialist in the U of I Department of Agriculture and Consumer Economics at the university’s Champaign-Urbana campus. His activities focus on farm management and risk management.

Farm management work is focused on examination of issues impacting the profitability of grain farms, including corn and soybean rotations, machinery economics and factors separating profitable from unprofitable farms. Risk management activities focus on crop insurance evaluations.

In addition to his teaching and authoring responsibilities, Schnitkey conducts over 40 meetings with farmers annually on risk-related projects.

He grew up on a grain and hog farm in northwest Ohio and received his bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University and his master’s and doctorate degrees from U of I.

Schnitkey was on the faculty at OSU from 1987 through 1998. He has been employed at the U of I since 1998.