-Submitted photo
Aaron and Laura Cunningham began farming together after they were married in 2010, with row crops, a cow-calf Angus herd and feedlot. Here they are shown with their two sons, ages 6 months and 3 years. Cunningham received the 2022 Women Impacting Agriculture Award from Iowa State University.

NORA SPRINGS — Growing up on her family’s farm raising row crops and cattle, Laura Cunningham knew in her heart she would always have a hand in agriculture. Little did she know as a young girl, that one day, she’d be winning awards and making a huge difference in the lives of FFA kids in her hometown.

“I worked the cattle business with my dad and was in charge of raising the bottle calves as a 5-year-old. I kept my own cattle herd going while in 4-H and FFA; I was part of the Rockford FFA chapter in high school, the third generation in my family, as my grandfather chartered the chapter and was their advisor after coming home to the family farm following World War II,” Cunningham said.

“There were a lot of siblings and no room for him to farm, so he went to ISU, got a degree in 1950 and chartered the chapter that my dad, brother and myself all served as president of.”

After graduating high school, Cunningham headed to Iowa State where she majored in ag business. While in college, Cunningham joined the FFA alumni group of her original chapter and returned to help teams and sit in as the students presented.

“I’ve always been passionate about ag education and I love sharing what we do on the farm,” she said. “A lot of people don’t have that experience or influence in their lives.”

In 2010, Cunningham graduated from Iowa State and moved back to the area where she grew up.

She started working in the seed industry in marketing, where she spent 15 years.

Cunningham and her husband, Aaron, also started farming together after they married in 2010, with row crops, a cow-calf Angus herd and a feedlot.

Because there wasn’t an FFA chapter in their school district and hadn’t been one since the ’60s, Cunningham decided to help interested parents and students start one. In 2019, she launched the Central Springs AgEd Boosters, a local 501c3 organization.

“They just needed a little bit of work to get things going. We packed a school board meeting with 35 people who were interested in supporting the start of an FFA chapter. The school district was very large land-wise, but with a lot of expenses running a rural school district,” Cunningham said. “They said they didn’t have the money to start it and wouldn’t be able to do it justice. They wanted to do it right and give students all of the opportunities that other chapters did, regardless of financial ability. They wanted to make it financially inclusive for everyone.”

So the group of locals were challenged by the school board to raise $400,000 that would sustain the program for its first five years. Then the school district would take over. They accepted that challenge and, within nine months, they had raised that $400,000.

“We visited local businesses, applied for grants, held a barbecue, rallied private donations. It’s really a testament to how much support for this industry and our community there was,” Cunningham said. “Agriculture is the backbone of our employers in the community. They’re rooted in ag. My grandpa was passionate about educating the community and did a lot of adult continuing education. A lot of the area families were students of his and saw firsthand how much an FFA program can influence people to stay in the community and be active members of the community.”

Cunningham also hoped to help establish a strong FFA program in her children’s school district so that one day they, too, could be involved and have the same experiences.

“We hope they will want to come back to the farm after exploring things in college. Even though I grew up near Nora Springs, my parents sent us to Rockford because they had an ag program at that time,” Cunningham said. The Cunninghams are fortunate to live six miles away from her parents and a quarter-mile from her husband’s family.

They work for her husband’s family farm, help her dad with his cattle business and run their own farm, too. Cunningham markets 50 percent of the beef direct-to-consumer, with the remainder going to a regional packer.

“We market beef direct, gate to plate, with our cattle operation,” she said. “Our herd started with just a few cows, my husband’s and my FFA herd, which became the root of our family operation. They’re SimAngus with a heavy Angus influence for meat production.”

Cunningham loves to grill and whip up entrees on the stove or in the oven, so her family enjoys the fruits of their labor with several meals a week using beef from their own farm.

“We’re focused on producing high quality prime beef for our farm, SkyView Farms. We sell our beef under the SkyView Beef label and, in 2021, we received a grant from the Iowa Department of Agriculture to open a food hub we call SkyView Market where we work with other producers to offer their products to our customers, including pork, poultry and eggs,” Cunningham said.

“The venture offers the opportunity to take our experience in marketing beef for 13 years and share that with other producers who are raising high quality protein in north Iowa. We have the marketing background, experience and a built-in customer base. We welcome other producers to sell with us and the customers appreciate it.”

For now, the food hub happens to be virtual, but later this spring, the Cunninghams will be opening a storefront on their farm where customers can order online and pick up on the farm or, if they’re on an established route, have their orders delivered.

“We’re remodeling the original 1900s barn to make one section of the bottom floor a store with a freezer, coolers and products displayed. We have a delivery route we do every week within a 30-mile radius of here and different drop points for the larger sized orders,” Cunningham said.

“It’s fun to connect with people, share what we do on the farm and get feedback from them. It’s not a traditional model and we love when they share what they’re making with the products. I receive lots of text messages and snapchats of great-looking meals.”

A future generation of Cunninghams are in the making on their Nora Springs farm. The Cunninghams have a 3-year-old son and a 6-month-old son.

“There’s a lot of energy in the house. When our toddler comes home from daycare, he asks to go feed the cows. He likes to ride in the feed truck,” Cunningham said. “We’re looking forward to the next generation on the farm and the next generation of FFA members.”

For her efforts in helping establish the Central Springs FFA chapter, Cunningham received the 2022 Women Impacting Agriculture Award from Iowa State University.

“Oh my gosh, what an honor. Looking back at some of the women who received that award, I didn’t feel like I fit, but what an honor, especially to be able to share at a conference at Iowa State my story, the challenges and successes. I also was elected as the first honorary member of the Central Springs FFA chapter. I really do have to commend the whole team in bringing that to fruition,” she said. “There was a core team of five directors who met regularly and another 30 volunteers ready to take on all sorts of projects.”

Now, the FFA chapter leaders and supporters are looking at creating a greenhouse and a booster club member who is a seed dealer has opened up a plot near the school classroom so the students can experience outdoor learning, following the growing cycle from planting to harvest.

Cunningham volunteers through Ag in the Classroom to conduct Farm Chats with elementary school students, giving them virtual tours of her farm.

Cunningham also received the 2020 Iowa Farm Bureau Young Farmer Leadership Award. She has served as the chair of the Iowa Farm Bureau Young Farmer Advisory Committee.

In 2019, she was selected to represent the United States in the Transatlantic Dialogue Consumer Engagement Study Trip to Germany. She also served on the Iowa USDA Farm Service Agency committee helping to review issues and advise state staff on program applications.

Cunningham represented the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association on the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture’s Butchery Innovation Task Force where she worked with others in the Iowa meat industry to identify ways to increase regional meat processing capacity and access the workforce.