“Farmhand” was always a passing title for me — valuable, but not my overall end goal. My time spent as a farmhand provided many learning and advancement opportunities — including starting my own farm in Connersville, Ind., which stitched together the one-generation gap in my family’s farming heritage. 

Technically, I’m a first-generation farmer. My grandfather farmed, but my mother and her siblings chose other career paths. I spent a lot of time helping with chores when I was younger, but my grandfather retired before I was old enough to truly work with him. Still, I had the farming bug.

In high school, I worked for his tenant and a family friend for years before I went to Purdue to earn a degree in ag economics. After college, I worked as an operations manager for a large farm in Crawfordsville, Ind.  After parting ways, I was introduced to the Rulon family of Rulon Enterprises in central Indiana, who has been no-tilling a multi-thousand acreage since 1911. It was the start of my solo farming career. 

We met through a mutual business associate at The Executive Program for Agricultural Producers (TEPAP) offered by Texas A&M. When I arrived back in Indiana, Ken Rulon reached out to see if I was interested in the opportunity he could provide. I decided to make the trip to Arcadia to see what the Rulons had to offer.  

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