USSEC chairman Laura Foell and her husband Bill received the Century Farm designation at the Iowa State Fair on August 20.
Iowa’s Century Farms program recognizes and honors families who have had a farm in the same family for 100 years or longer. The program began in 1976 as part of the Bicentennial Celebration.
Ms. Foell said she and her husband are the fifth generation of their family to live on and work their farm and they take great pride in their stewardship of the land. She added, “For the last five generations, this family has been innovators in their farming techniques. Bill’s dad was one of the first to try ridge till in the area and Bill was the first to start no-tilling and strip tilling, even though neighbors doubted whether these would work. We are not content to keep doing things the way they have always been done-but to experiment with ways to improve efficiencies.”

The Foells’ children, Tom and Mary, each take a keen interest in what is happening in the farm’s operation and will be the sixth generation to manage the farm that was founded by their great great great grandfather in 1894.