IAW meeting features officer elections, update from ag groups

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Members of Illinois Agri-Women gathered for their annual meeting to elect new officers, conduct association business and learn about several Illinois agricultural organizations.

Elected to officer positions for the upcoming year are: Anjie Erbsen, president; Jessica Fleming, vice president of education; Deb Schultz, treasurer; Margie Menacher, membership chair; and Lisa Muirheid Martin, policies and procedures.

Illinois Pork

“We just went through a strategic planning exercise and we had not done one since prior to COVID,” Jennifer Tirey, executive director of the Illinois Pork Producers Association, told the group during a presentation.

“We sat down as a board and invited producers to come together to talk about how we are going to move forward as an association,” she said. “Our strategic priorities are how we determine what we’re doing in 2025 and the next couple of years.”

The IPPA strategic plan includes focusing on animal well-being, increasing pork consumption, advocating for policy and legislation and improving producer engagement.

“One of the big things for our industry is traceability and making sure our farmers have premise identification,” the IPPA executive director said. “So, if we have something come up with an animal disease, we know where the isolated incident has occurred.”

IPPA uses producer checkoff dollars to help increase pork consumption in the United States.

“We were at over 600 retail stores in 2024,” Tirey said.

Members of IPPA spend time in both Washington, D.C., and Springfield to meet with legislators.

“Those face-to-face meetings are so important,” Tirey said.

“We have this really great product called bacon, so we pass out BLTs to legislators in Springfield and the state FFA officers love to dress up in bacon costumes,” she said. “Legislators want to come and get a photo, so that’s a great way for our producers to meet legislators.”

To help young people get more involved, IPPA developed the Illinois Pork Industry Group, or Illinois PIG, that started with a community college program.

“We identified 10 students at Lincoln Land Community College and immersed them about all the different opportunities of pork production,” Tirey said.

The program includes visits to pork farms and a processing plant.

“We’re going to build on this program and go to Lake Land College in Mattoon in April,” Tirey said.

The Future Leaders program is focused on pork producers ranging from 21 to 40 years old.

“We want to identify individuals already working in the industry that we can encourage to be on our committees and eventually board members,” Tirey said.

“The first year is learning about from the farm to retail,” she said. “We start with a sow farm, take them on a packing plant tour and then go to Chicago to see the retail side.”

The second year, the group travels to Washington to learn more about policy development.

“I have five board members now that have been through the Future Leaders program, so it’s a great way for us to keep them engaged in our association,” Tirey said.

Illinois Corn

Both the Illinois Corn Growers Association and the Illinois Corn Marketing Board have set strategic goals.

“Our whole budget is allocated based on ways to achieve these goals,” said Lindsay Croke, director of communications and marketing for Illinois Corn.

“Our growers association is focused on legislative work, including the farm bill, conservation and the 45Z tax guidance, which is going to enable ethanol producers to have a tax incentive to produce sustainable aviation fuel,” Croke said.

“The marketing board is really concerned about the profitability equation for farmers,” she said. “They are motivated to think about export markets and domestic ethanol markets.”

The two corn groups work together on to achieve goals such as building demand and developing export markets.

“The marketing board is looking for partners like the U.S. Grains Council to build relationships with international countries to sell more corn,” Croke said. “And the growers association tries to get more funding for the trade programs through the farm bill.”

Illinois Beef

Joan Harrison is a fourth-generation beef producer and a policy director for the Illinois Beef Association. Her family has a 60- to 70-cow herd that includes Limousin, Lim-Flex and Simmentals.

“We sell show stock, seedstock and I feed out calves for our freezer beef operation,” Harrison said.

The IBA has 14 checkoff directors and 14 policy directors.

“We partner with other commodity groups quite often on projects like Illinois Farm Families and Ag in the Classroom,” Harrison said.

“The policy division works with lawmakers and legislative partners to protect farmers’ interest and promote consumer programs,” she said. “One of the things we’re working on now is alternative proteins and we’re trying to educate lawmakers why it’s better to have a natural product.”

IBA’s checkoff division is focused on educating consumers and youth about beef from the farm to the plate.

“We engage with consumers across the state and Illinois loves chili cookoffs,” Harrison said. “I have helped with a couple of them and the contestants have their certain cut of beef that they like to use in their chili.”

Illinois Soybean

The mission of the Illinois Soybean Association is to uphold the interests of Illinois soybean producers through promotion, advocacy, education and research.

“Our mission is to be the trusted partner of soybean farmers ensuring profitability now and for future generations,” said Nicole Butler, executive employee relations for ISA. “Our values are based on integrity, leadership, stability and entrepreneurship.”

ISA is focused on market development, soybean production and government relations.

“We have two divisions in market development, domestic and international,” Butler said. “Our market development team is making sure we have relationships with other countries, so they are going to Indonesia in July to make friends.”

For the soybean production area, the team includes researchers, agronomists and outreach specialists.

“About 70% of our employees were either raised on a farm or are still farming,” Butler said. “We adjust schedules so there’s a lot of things that happen on the weekend or the evenings because they have to get seeds in the ground and the harvest done in the fall.”