NAFB Blog

Rusty Halvorson recently marked 20 years at the American Ag Network (Fargo, ND). His broadcasting career is rooted in family tradition. As a young boy, Rusty sat beside his father, Lee, in the sports broadcast booth and watched as his dad announced countless radio play-by-play broadcasts across North Dakota.

Dedicated to delivering agriculture news to U.S. farmers and ranchers, farm broadcasters provide daily news coverage on topics critical to the industry. Farm broadcasters are up before the sun, providing stories focused as much on production ag as helping to bridge the gap between farmer and consumer, lending insight and knowledge to their listener. 

Mayor KayDee Gilkey (Ag Information Network of the West, Fairfield, WA) puts down her gavel as mayor to pick up her mike as a farm broadcaster.

When Ken Rahjes is not wearing his broadcasting hat (agview.net, Agra, KS) he is working as a member of the Kansas House of Representatives. To the question of what is on the pulse of farmers, he said, “This could be described as ‘the winter of our discontent’ as it has lacked moisture in the form of snow or even rain. The warm temperatures have some farmers itching to start with field work. In fact, in mid-February we saw some anhydrous ammonia being applied. It looks like this will be a year when the wheat will use up many lives to make it to harvest.” 

“My career as a farm broadcaster began in August 2015,” said Katie Wilson (WSMI, Litchfield, IL).” She was working as a County Farm Bureau Manager in northern Illinois and “the job was in the wrong location and not a perfect match.” In her second year of the working world, she began searching for a new job. She was born and raised in Litchfield, IL, on a small grain and livestock farm.