Film maker and NAFB allied industry member Conrad Weaver of ConjoStudios, LLC (Emmitsburg, MD) reports that his 2014 documentary the Great American Wheat Harvest film received a Mid-America Regional Emmy Award for Best Documentary – Cultural. “The Great American Wheat Harvest is a story about American harvesters who risk everything to put food on our tables. Each year they travel from Texas north across the Western Plains harvesting wheat and other crops that feed the world. The film follows their journey and tells their stories,” Conrad said. 

At the 2015 Indiana 4-H Congress in October, Gary Truitt, President of Hoosier Ag Today (HAT), presented the Indiana 4-H Foundation Communications Scholarship to Emily Clark, a 10-year 4-H member from Warrick County.  Held at the State Fairgrounds, the 4-H Congress attracted more than 90 of Indiana's top 4-H youth for a day of training and achievement awards. Emily said 4-H has changed her life. "It has changed me as a person, especially my communications skills. I am a quiet person, but 4-H taught me how to express myself in a positive way."  She is a college freshman at Samford University in Birmingham, AL, where she is majoring in communications.  

Terry Henne (WSGW, Saginaw, MI) reports the sugar beet harvest in Michigan is approaching record yields. “So far, processing has been going without a hitch. Tonnage of harvested beets on average has been running more than 29 tons, which has never happened in 100+ years,” Terry said. The early harvest in Michigan generated more than 30% harvested acres.

Jesse Stewart (KGLO AM-1300, Mason City, IA) was hired as a farm broadcaster in May 2013.  He earned a BA in Multimedia Journalism from Simpson College in Indianola, IA.   “I actually kind of fell into farm broadcasting by accident. I had never considered it as a career in the industry until having some conversations with some of the staff I knew in Mason City. I had interned with the station the summer before my senior year and got to know the whole staff. 

Susan Risinger joined the WJAG/KEXL & KQKX staff in 1989 as assistant news director and has been the farm director since 1991. “As for how I got into this business,” Susan said, “totally by accident.”  She explains, “In 1981, I started working as a typesetter (now an ancient job description) for the weekly newspaper in Neligh, about 35 miles west of Norfolk, NE.