If you’re not familiar with our organization, you might be asking what Farm Bureau is. I’ll answer by telling you, not what, but who Farm Bureau is.
Farm Bureau is 4-H leaders and FFA Alumni. It is the families serving pancakes at the county dairy breakfast. The people promoting beef in the grocery store. You might have seen us in the 4th of July parade or a food stand at the county fair.
We’re behind the wheel of that tractor driving down the road. We’re the dairy farm or cranberry marsh you’ve driven by. We’re the strawberry or pumpkin patch you visit. We’re the winery or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm that you purchase from. We all consider ourselves farmers no matter our size or what we’re growing. We’re also the teachers, bankers, veterinarians, mechanics, processors, marketers, communicators, nutritionists and agronomists who all have a hand in farming’s success.
That’s who Farm Bureau is.
We’re civic-minded volunteers who see the value in working together on a grassroots level. Collectively for more than 90 years we’ve organized our efforts on the county level. During the process we became the most active force for farming on rural Wisconsin’s landscape.
Most of Farm Bureau’s history has been intertwined with an insurance company started more than 80 years ago by a group of farmers seeking auto insurance. From those humble beginnings grew a nationally-recognized business that has never forgotten the priority it shares with Farm Bureau, keeping Wisconsin strong.
That’s who Farm Bureau is.
Farm Bureau members are conservationists. Deeply-rooted in our communities, we drink the water, breathe the air and want the soil to sustain future generations of consumers and farmers. We support proactive research and pragmatic efforts that protect the environment. As a result we can produce more with less in order to feed people from Beloit to Beijing.
Whether a Traditionalist, Baby Boomer, Generation X or Millennial we are excited about the resurgence of young people who see agriculture’s many opportunities on the farm and off.
That’s who Farm Bureau is.
Whether you are a new policy holder at Rural Mutual, come from a family that chartered one of our 61 county Farm Bureaus or just ‘know of’ Farm Bureau, it’s important for all of us to reintroduce ourselves.
During a time when our society has great interest in farmers and food, it’s important for farmers and agriculturists not to be shy about talking to others about what they do. In essence, we need to reintroduce ourselves to our customers. So here it goes…My name is Jim. I raise beef cattle and grow corn and soybeans on a farm near Elk Mound in Dunn County.
For those of you who don’t know a farmer, now you do. I invite you to meet more Farm Bureau members on our social media channels and in your local communities. After all, we share a couple things in common: we all call Wisconsin home and we all eat.
Jim Holte was elected president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation on in 2012. He was elected to the WFBF Board of Directors in 1995. He represents District 9 which consists of the Barron, Chippewa, Dunn, Pierce, Polk, Rusk, Sawyer and St. Croix county Farm Bureaus as well as the Superior Shores County Farm Bureau (made up of Ashland, Bayfield, Douglas and Iron counties). Jim was elected to the American Farm Bureau Federation Board of Directors in January of 2015 as a representative of the Midwest region. Jim and grows corn soybeans and alfalfa on 460 acres of land south of Elk Mound. He also raises beef steers. He and his wife, Gayle, have two children and four grandchildren.
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