Wow, it’s been awhile since I wrote a blog! Those of you that follow along probably thought I fell off the face of the earth or something. Well, I’m here today to report that I’m still here, I’ve just been tied up with a little project called Century Farms. My staff and I just got finished putting together this 96 page monster that features a century farm family in each of our 33 counties in northwest and north central Iowa plus an additional featured farm family.

Agriculture has been a part of us Iowans since 1833 and the family farm has defined who we are as a state. Those families who have given blood, sweat, and tears to produce crops and livestock on their land for more than 100 years are honored each year through the Century Farms Program. Since 1976 over 15,000 families have been recognized through the Iowa Department of Agriculture and the Iowa Farm Bureau.

Farm News has produced the Century Farms magazine since 2002 but it has really grown over the years, in fact it has grown to a point that it will be approximately 9% of our entire year’s revenue. It’s a neat piece that is more of a coffee table item than our normal publication. Not only will Century Farms be inserted into our June 24th issue but we hand out tons of copies at the 2011 Clay County Fair, our own Farm News Ag Show, next years Iowa Pork Congress and Iowa Power Farming Show, plus we have it on our website for an entire year. These stories on century farm families are about our friends and our neighbors and unless you dislike Joe Blow farmer, who lives across the section and who, because of a brain aneurysm, sprayed in 50 mph winds causing your crops to wilt and die, you are going to sit and read these human interest stories. Kersh and his staff have once again outdone themselves with the editorial stories about the history of 34 Iowa families.

I think I can speak for my sales staff when I tell you we have a love / hate relationship with Century Farms. The previous two years things got a little rough but this year we bounced back and produced revenue that was only topped slightly by our 2008 magazine. The bucks they will make on this project should allow them to treat themselves and their families to a really good meal out! The stress though that we all endured while trying to fill 61 blank pages with advertisement with a staff of three sales people, a secretary and myself was at times like having to go to the dentist, where you know things are going to be better at the end, but the process sucks. It’s not like that was all we did since April, we still had to put out a weekly publication and a dozen or so other smaller projects.

Although the staff did a majority of the work on this project, I did my best to help out by hitting the road a couple times per week and going from county to county helping them sell about 20% of the project. While it’s nice to get out of the office now and then, and I know my staff is always thrilled to have the boss gone for the day, I did get a little road weary at the end. After 3,000 miles, I do believe my truck did as well.

I would like to thank my staff of Jackie Johnson, Kristi Elmore, Randy Sells, and Jana Ewing for working their fannys off while keeping a positive attitude through the whole process. I would also like to sincerely thank Larry Kershner, Darcy Maulsby, Kriss Nelson, Clayton Rye, Robyn Kruger, David DeValois, and Doug Clough for their writing talents. A special thanks out to the Messenger’s Creative staff of Michelle Colshan, Ken Baker, Reggie Cygan, Avis Dumdei, Amy Knieriem, Nick Manwarren, and Lisa Wilson who did an outstanding job of creating ad copy. This department seldom gets recognized for all the hard work they do but we couldn’t produce this award winning tabloid without them. Lastly, I would like to thank all of our advertisers who took part in Century Farms and I wish you all the best with leads that hopefully are produced through this special magazine.

To all of you, I hope you enjoy our Farm News 2011 Century Farms magazine and if you do, make sure you go to our website version that will include additional photos and videos. Until next time.