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A Love for Farming Drives This Farmer

Like many farm kids, Tony Rother never outgrew his love for equipment. He has always enjoyed farming and big trucks.

Because he also was good with numbers, Tony considered a career in financing. He graduated from North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) but his heart was set on farming rather than studying more numbers. His family’s farming operation wasn’t large enough to support everyone, so Tony spent two years driving trucks for Sukup Manufacturing in Sheffield, Iowa. In 2005, he reached his goal of starting his own trucking company.

Today Tony and his wife, Jessica, live down the road from where Tony’s great grandfather began farming in 1919. His parents, Mark and Sue Rother, live on the homeplace. Father and son have been farming together for more than 20 years. Since 2010, they also have been hauling seed to Latham® dealers and customers.

“What I enjoy most about trucking is the freedom I have,” Tony says. “I enjoy being my own boss and making my own decisions. I really enjoy working for Latham Seeds and talking with farmers across the Midwest.”

The ability to drive long distances comes in handy with an active family. Tony and Jessica have two children: Landon and Olivia. Both are active in traveling sports teams. Landon’s favorite sport is basketball and Olivia’s is softball. Jessica works as a social worker for Iowa Total Care, which takes her to several counties across North Iowa.

In their free time, the Rothers are involved in their community. Tony helps coach Landon’s West Fork basketball team. Jessica serves on the West Fork Booster Club and teaches Sunday School at Zion-St. John Lutheran Church.

One of their year-round, favorite recipes is Spinach-Stuffed Chicken Breasts — which is easier to make than it sounds! This main dish can be paired with nearly any type of side.

Shannon Latham

September 15, 2023

Food & Family, General, Latham News, Poultry
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Latham’s “Locker Room Report” Returns to Cyclone Radio Network

September 9, 2023, marks the 70th meeting between the University of Iowa and Iowa State University football teams. In a state without a professional sports team, the Cy-Hawk game is the Super Bowl of Iowa. After all, bragging rights are at stake!

“The Cy-Hawk game brings fans of both teams together for a spirited game day atmosphere,” says John Latham, president, Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds. “It was great to see Iowa State win last year. Hopefully, the Cyclones can make it two in a row! Coach Matt Campbell has proven that he can take Iowa State to new heights, and I’m excited for another season of Cyclone football.”

Many young, talented players will get their first chance to play meaningful snaps at Iowa State.

“The quarterback is the most important position on the field,” John says. “Iowa State has two incredibly talented freshmen who will get their chance to prove themselves. Rocco Becht is a redshirt freshman from Tampa and JJ Kohl is a true freshman from Ankeny. Rocco is a mobile quarterback who can get outside the pocket and beat defenses. Measuring 6 feet 7 inches tall, JJ has a big arm and throws more traditional pocket passes. We’ll see which QB takes over for the rest of the season.”

John had so much fun golfing for charity in Hampton this summer with Cyclone football players. From left to right: Dimitri Stanley, Jaylin Noel and Rocco Becht. Dimitri and Jaylin are wide receivers and Rocco is a quarterback.

Creating a Winning Culture

Much like a college football coach is who nurturing a culture within his sports organization, a company’s owners and managers must nurture its culture. Culture transforms a company into a team. An organization’s culture sets expectations for how people behave and work together.

Coach Matt Campbell has brought a five-star culture to Cyclone football. We don’t need a roster filled with five-star recruits if we have players who believe in a five-star culture,” John says. “We’re working hard to create a 5-star culture at Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds. There are similarities in that both ISU and Latham compete against teams with more money, but we overcome the obstacles to win!”

John Latham taking with John Walters and Coach Campbell during a live broadcast of the Latham Locker Room Report.

Win or lose, you won’t want to miss the Latham Locker Room Report. This post-game radio broadcast includes exclusive interviews with Iowa State coaches and players. It airs on the Cyclone Radio Network.

Celebrating Cyclones Everywhere

Everyone wins at a tailgate, and no tailgate is complete without dessert. Today I’m sharing with you one of my family’s favorite recipes for Scotcharoos, which is about as “Iowa State” as one can get!

Scotcheroos honor two outstanding ISU alumni: George Washington Carver who performed extensive research on peanut products, and Mildred Day who invented Rice Krispie Treats®. FUN FACT: Iowa State honored Day’s memory during its VEISHEA celebration in April 2001 – and set a new world record – by creating a gigantic Rice Krispies Treat that weighed 2,480 pounds.

When you live in rural America, you can’t run uptown for gourmet ingredients. But you can make simple Rice Krispies treats look gourmet by using a heavy-duty cookie cutter to shape them into footballs before you cover them with chocolate.

Shannon Latham

September 7, 2023

Desserts, Food & Family, General, Latham News, Recipes
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

From Iowa to Washington, Tom Latham’s Quiet Leadership Carries On

Husband. Father. Statesman. Businessman.

Regardless of the hat he is wearing, people in Tom Latham’s circle of influence will tell you he exudes humility and quiet strength.

“I never learn a thing when I’m talking,” Tom Latham told a The Des Moines Register reporter upon his retirement from U.S. Congress in 2015. “You learn things when you’re listening to other folks. And I think we should all maybe step back and listen to each other more.”

Tom’s understated style made him incredibly effective as a salesman for 19 years with Latham Seed Co. where he worked with his father, Willard, and his brothers Bill and Don. When the marketplace changed in the mid-1970s, the family-owned company moved from selling almost solely through farmer-cooperatives to a farmer-dealer network. Tom traveled throughout Iowa, literally selling bags of Latham® soybeans out of his trunk and signing up farmers as dealers.

Tom, Willard, Don and Bill Latham in front of processing plant.

He applied that roll-up-your-sleeves and get-to-work attitude from 1995 to 2015 as a U.S. Representative. He never faced a serious challenge as the 5th District’s congressman and proudly served for 20 years.

Congressman Latham spent months securing the Congressional Gold Medal – the nation’s highest civilian honor – for Norman Borlaug, an Iowan whose work in crop genetics is credited with saving one billion people from starvation. Congressman Latham also led efforts to modernize the largest federal animal disease center in the United States, located in Ames.

Tom credits his wife of 47 years, Kathy, for being the glue that held the household together while he was on the road with Latham Seeds or traveling to and from Washington, D.C. Kathy joined Tom in Washington and happily focused her support on his political career. She enjoyed spending time with Tom and everywhere their travels took them.

Tom and Kathy raised three children: Justin, Jennifer and Jill.

Kathy’s family loves her chocolate chip cookie recipe, so we’re sharing it with you today.

Shannon Latham

July 14, 2023

Desserts, Food & Family, General, Latham News, Recipes
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Agribusiness Review – Latham Top 10

We usually don’t like to brag, but this deserves a quick pat on our backs: The Agribusiness Review has recognized Latham Seeds as one of the Top 10 seed companies in 2023 for being on the forefront of providing seed solutions and positively impacting the industry. (And now we’ll get back to work.) Check it out!

June 30, 2023

Food & Family, Latham News
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Latham® Seeds Welcomes Brad Leckrone

As a father of seven and grandfather of four, Brad Leckrone is happily busy with family at home. While partnering with Latham Seeds for the past eight years as an outside IT account manager, Brad says he felt like he was working with family, too.

“I always found my interactions with Latham to be pleasant and professional,” Brad says. “I appreciate the way Latham Seeds conducts itself, and the Latham family has a good reputation. When the opportunity arose to join the team, I felt it would be a great move.”

Brad is now a Seed Account Manager (SAM) working from Alexander, but his IT background and knowledge of Latham’s technology needs already have been put to good use within the company. In his new role with Latham, Brad says he is most looking forward to continuing to help people — dealers, customers and colleagues alike.

“I really enjoy helping people,” he says. “I’m here to help.”

Brad and his wife, Miriam, live on a small farm in North Central Iowa, where they cash rent the tillable ground and have a few cows, horses, chickens and “the regular assortment of dogs and cats.” As a family, they enjoy target shooting, horseback riding and watching their daughter compete in horse jumping shows. They also like to fish and spend time on the boat.

With much of his extended family hailing from Indiana, the Leckrones are sharing a Hoosier favorite recipe for Sugar Cream Pie. (Brad guarantees that Wicks Sugar Cream pies are the best!)
Baking The Perfect Wick’s Sugar Cream Pie | Del Buono’s Bakery (delbuonosbakery.com)

bonnie-harris

June 22, 2023

Desserts, Food & Family, General, Latham News
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Latham® Corn Seed: Your Passport to Quality

By the time Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds offers a new corn hybrid, the number of places it has traveled in its developmental process is pretty “a-maize-ing.”

Let’s look at the developmental timeline and how your bag of corn seed gets so many frequent flyer miles. It can take at least five years to create a new hybrid with a new seed parent. These new corn lines like to travel. As a breeder, I become the travel agent coordinating their travel plans.

What are some of the popular destinations for these lucky kernels? We use fields in Hawaii, Mexico, Chile and Argentina. By using these countries, we can plant fields year-round to accelerate our development process. In some cases, we can get three growing seasons in one year.

We use these locations to develop new parents, remake successful hybrids, create new experimental hybrids to test each year and produce hybrid for new releases. No one country can efficiently meet all our needs, so using multiple locations allows us to do different processes to deliver a new product to you.

Your family uses passports to travel and gets inspected by the TSA to get on the plane. A corn family needs similar documents for travel. The difference is that your family typically can travel and get into a country within a day. Each seed shipment we send or receive needs its own inspection and unique documentation, depending on where it’s going. Seed is further inspected upon arriving at its destination. This trip can take up to a week or more if its paperwork isn’t accepted. Delays can affect whether the seed arrives home in time.

The next time you look at a bag of Latham brand hybrid seed corn, know that it might have as many airline miles as you do. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a way to collect and use those frequent flyer perks!

Did you enjoy this article? We want to (TECH)talk with you! Sign up for our newsletter to receive agronomy articles (and delicious recipes) in your inbox! We’ll talk soon.

Team Latham

March 24, 2023

#AskTheAgronomist, Corn, Crop, From the Field, General, Latham News, Tech Tuesday
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Farming (and Mustangs) Fuel this Minnesota Family

Farming is at the heart of Kyle and Sally Johnson’s family — so much so that they made sure their wedding vows included the words “in sunshine and in rain” when they were married 22 years ago. Sally’s wedding ring has a head of wheat engraved on each side, a reflection of their Minnesota farm near Fargo, N.D., where they raise corn, soybeans, sugar beets and wheat.

“All four of our boys are farm boys in every way,” Sally says. “They all want to farm together too.”

Kyle and Sally met in high school at a church retreat, where Sally quickly noticed Kyle’s green Mustang and asked him for a ride.

Little did she know that Mustangs were a Johnson family “first car” tradition that began with Kyle’s dad. Both Kyle and his brother, Chad, had a Mustang growing up. Sally’s oldest sons — Ethan, Preston and Logan — have since chose a Mustang for their first cars, too. Thirteen-year-old Dawson plans to keep the tradition going.

“Even though our driveway is gravel, our boys all wanted one,” says Sally, who works as a trauma team case manager at Sanford Medical Center in Fargo. “Even I have a Mustang now.”

It’s said when you drive a Mustang, you’re living your dream. Together, Kyle and Sally are fueling similar dreams for their family on their fifth-generation North Dakota farm. A Latham® Seeds dealership helps diversify their income.

It was Sally’s cousin, Ken Highness, who first introduced her and Kyle to Latham products, which they started planting in 2015. The quality and performance of corn varieties and Ironclad™ soybeans helped Ken, a Latham regional sales manager, convince the Johnsons to take on a Latham® dealership — a decision Kyle says ended up being a perfect fit.

“It was a good opportunity, but it also made sense for us being a family-owned business,” he says. “We love that the whole Latham family, from John, Shannon and Chris are involved, because that’s what we strive for with our own family. We want to keep working together.”

When they aren’t farming, the Johnsons enjoy sports, hunting, ice fishing and annual trips to Yellowstone National Park. They also love this tried-and-true chicken enchilada recipe that feeds their hungry crew.

bonnie-harris

March 10, 2023

Food & Family, General, Latham News, Poultry, Recipes
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Latham Seeds welcomes Steve Sick as Product Manager

When Steve Sick was 12 years old, he started working summers in the corn nursery in Freemont, Nebraska, where his dad was research director at J.C. Robinson Seed Co. He developed a love for agriculture and continued his career in R&D well after high school (24 years to be exact) before moving into Product Management.

“I learned the seed business from the inside out,” Steve says. “I didn’t grow up on a farm and I did not attend college, but I’ve been involved in agriculture my entire life.”

After working for several larger companies over the years, Steve is happy to get back to what he calls “the bare roots and basics of seed” in his new role as Latham’s product manager.

“I honestly enjoy talking to and teaching growers about new products to help them be more successful in the farming operations,” Steve says. “You’ll never leave a conversation with me and not know exactly where I stand on a topic or a product. It’s just who I am.”

Steve and his wife, Cindy, have been married for 32 years. They go to Las Vegas twice a year, with Steve betting on sports and Cindy enjoying the slots. (This June will mark their 59^th trip to Vegas.) They also have taken on a growing interest in watching their granddaughter, Emily, play her favorite sport: bowling.

“She wants to be a professional bowler when she grows up,” Steve says. “Her high game is 205. Not bad for a 12-year-old!”

bonnie-harris

March 2, 2023

Food & Family, General, Latham News
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

FOR THE LOVE OF HER LAND

When it comes to farming — specifically as a FarmHer — April Hemmes’ resume speaks for itself.

Besides earning her Animal Science degree from Iowa State University, April has served in leadership roles for the United Soybean Board, USDA Foreign Ag Service Technical Advisory Council and the U.N. Food Security Summit . . . just to name a few. She’s been described as a trailblazer for women in ag — a reference she humbly dismisses and appreciates at the same time.

“I really don’t think you are a trailblazer if you are just doing what you love and pursuing your dream,” April says. “I hope the fact that I farm gives other young women hope that someday they may be able to go home and work on their family farm and manage it, too!”

April lives on the farm her great grandfather bought in 1901. It was always a diverse operation, so when she came home to farm, April knew she could have hogs too. They cleaned out an old building and turned it into a farrowing house with raised crates that April bought from a nearby producer who’d gone out of business. She bought 30 gilts, started a farrow-to-finish operation and farmed with her grandpa and her dad.

April with her grandfather

When the market went to 9 cents a pound in the late 1990’s, April retreated from the hog business to focus more on the 60-head cow calf herd she had purchased from her dad by then.

“I really liked having hogs around,” April says. “But something had to go.”

Business decisions like that helped propel April into a lifetime of farming that has captured headlines as “Midwest Farm Mom of the Year” and on the cover of “Successful Farming” magazine. Her husband, Tom Kazmerzak, always has worked in town and not on the farm. April has been the owner and operator of her family’s century farm south of Hampton, Iowa for more than 40 years, raising corn, soybean and pasture land.

“Farming has always been what I wanted to do with my life,” April says. “I always helped on the farm and knew education and experience would be the best way to be ready for the challenge.”

One of April’s secrets to success is getting up early to answer emails so other farmers feel heard.

“The most gratifying thing I hear is when another farmer thanks me for what I am doing,” she says. “It really means a lot to me.”

The other secret to her success? Sheer stubbornness.

“I did not have a father who encouraged me to farm, but I was always expected to do everything on the farm,” April says. “I’m very proud to carry on the tradition of farming. It’s my love, my life and my legacy.”

Enjoy April’s favorite cookie recipe below.

Shannon Latham

February 16, 2023

Agronomics, Desserts, Food & Family, General, Latham News, Recipes
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

“Hope through Hoops” is Name of the Game
Whether you cheer for the Black and Gold or the Cardinal and Gold, we’re all on the same team in the fight against cancer.

Jerry Broders, RSM, and the Allen Oltman Family presented a check to Coaches vs Cancer during the Iowa game on Saturday, February 4th.

For the 11^th consecutive season, Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds is donating funds to the American Cancer Society through Coaches vs. Cancer. Our company’s donation will total $75k by the season’s end.

Coincidentally, Latham Seeds celebrated its 75^th anniversary in 2022 by launching a Seeds of Hope campaign to raise an additional $75,000 for the American Cancer Society. Latham Seeds will donate $1 to the American Cancer Society for every unit of LH 3937 VT2 PRO, LH 5245 VT2 PRO and LH 6477 VT2 PRO sold.

“We have been committed to supporting the American Cancer Society through the Charity Stripe Promotion since the 2012-2013 season because we know first-hand what a gift hope can be,” says John Latham, president, Latham Seeds. “On February 20, 2010, my father underwent a stem cell transplant to battle AML (Acute Myelogenous Leukemia). He and my mom moved into the Gift of Life Transplant House in Rochester after he was released from the hospital. That transplant extended Dad’s life for more than five years, and we are grateful for all the support he received during his cancer battle.”

More than 1.6 million people are diagnosed with cancer annually in the United States. Whether it’s ourselves, our parents, a neighbor or a coworker, each of us has a cancer story. No one fights alone.

Click here to join Latham Seeds in the fight against cancer: https://lathamseeds.com/hope/

Related Articles:
- 2013: Coaches vs. Cancer nets $15,000
- 2014: Coaches vs. Cancer nets $17,000
- 2015: Put the Full Court Press on Cancer
- 2016: Will to Win is a Common Denominator
- 2019: Latham Seeds Provides Cancer Support One Free Throw at a Time
- 2020: Providing Hope is Our “Why”
- 2021: Coming Back from Childhood Cancer
- 2021: Schminke Family Goes the Distance
- 2022: Free Throws Total $65k Donation from Latham Seeds
Shannon Latham

February 9, 2023

Food & Family, General, Latham News, Recipes, Seeds of Hope, Soups

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