David Irons met the love of his life in 1989 when they were both working in the same office in Des Moines.  Although David and Patty had both grown on up farms – he on a cow-calf operation in the Altoona-Runnells area and she on a feeder cattle-row crops operation in North Iowa –  farming fulltime wasn’t something they had thought about much. After all, they had grown up during the 1980s Farm Crisis and moved to the city for stable paychecks and promising careers.

Then, as it often does, life handed the young couple a curve ball. Patty’s father was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1992, so the Irons had a decision to make. They chose to move to Northwood to become a part of the family farm and make a fresh start. They moved to the farm in January 1996 after Patty’s mom moved to town.  Over the years, they’ve remodeled facilities. They put a new roof on the barn in 2009 and tinned it in 2013 to make a nice area for the girls to store show equipment and fit cattle.

Fitting is something Lisa, a junior studying Animal Science and beef production at Iowa State, enjoys and has become known for. She also enjoys showing cattle they’ve raised themselves and was proud to have produced the top selling heifer at the 2015 Worth County Club Calf Sale.  This is the last summer Lisa is eligible to show in FFA. Both Lisa and Mary showed at the Worth County Fair in June. They plan to show at various open shows in July, the Iowa State Fair in August, and the Clay County Fair in September.

The Irons have shown in many Iowa Junior Beef Breeds Association shows, including Beef Expo. Lisa has also shown at Ak-sar-ben in Omaha and the Minnesota Beef Expo in St. Paul.  Lisa has led several clinics for beginning showmen.

“Giving presentations and leading fitting demonstrations has helped me develop confidence, overcome my fear of public speaking and cope with anxiety,” says Lisa. “My 4-H and FFA beef project has helped me develop so many skills, meet many people and led me toward a career. My dream is to graduate from college and farm with my dad.”

Lisa started showing cattle as a third grader when she entered a bucket bottle calf in the county fair. She brought that heifer back the following year.  Mary followed in her sister’s footsteps, starting with bucket bottle calves.  As a N-K High School Senior, she plans to bring her first heifer back as a cow/calf pair to the 2017 Worth County Fair.

As the girls have grown, so has their beef herd. They began with Maine-Anjou and have added more Simmental, which had more genetic resources available. Plus, the Simmental are known as a pretty docile beef breed that makes them good show animals. The Irons have focused on developing better and better stock, selling off animals and then using those proceeds to purchase better genetics.

Most of their steers are sold to local feeders, but they feed out a few to sell directly to consumers. Female calves are kept as replacements or sold as bred heifers to other beef operators.

“My dream is for my kids to find something they enjoy that provides a good life, as well as a good living, and to pass this farm to the next generation.”

When you have a product to sell – whether its athletic shoes or beef cattle – you need to know market trends. Did you know Millennials have overtaken Baby Boomers as America’s largest generation? That equates to $2.45 trillion in buying power! It also explains why beef producers like Scott McGregor of Nashua, Iowa, are allocating more resources toward reaching this important target market.

Scott and his wife, Tracy, live on the home place purchased in 1936 by Scott’s grandfather. Tracy teaches physical education and music at Nashua-Plainfield Elementary. Scott farms with his two brothers, David and Allan, as well as his nephew Patrick. Scott and Tracy’s sons both graduated from Iowa State University. Brendan earned a degree in marketing and works in Des Moines. Chet earned a degree in Ag Studies and helps a neighbor farm and raise cattle.

“As beef producers, our message to millennials needs to include information about the nutritional profile of the beef. I want people to feel confident about the food they eat,” explains Scott, who represents the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) as co-chair of the Consumer Trust Committee, a joint committee between the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and the NCBA. “We need consumer trust to market our products, so we’re placing more emphasis on the safety and quality of our beef.”

Younger consumers are trending toward more health-conscious eating, so American beef producers are using social media and digital advertisements to get out the message that beef is part of a healthy diet. One serving of beef, which is 3 ounces or about the size of an iPhone, provides our bodies with nearly half of its needed protein plus 10 essential nutrients including zinc, iron, protein (ZIP) and B vitamins.

Consumers want to know the food on grocery store shelves is safe and nutritious. Today’s shoppers look for food labels to help them feel better about their food choices. That’s why Scott, who was recently appointed to the National Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) Task Force, believes more beef producers will become certified than ever before in the 25-year history of BQA. New beef harvesting facilities will only buy from BQA-certified producers. Plus, QR codes could allow cattle to be traced back to the farm of origin.

“So many consumers have lost sight that food on the grocery store shelves comes from a farm,” explains Scott, past chairman and currently federation director for the Iowa Beef Industry Council. “BQA can help them connect the food on their table right back to the farm where it was raised.”

This fourth generation Iowa farmer is so passionate about connecting the farm gate to the dinner plate that he’s spent time in the classroom each year for the past 10 years, teaching history to 11^th graders taking an Iowa Studies class at the Nashua-Plainfield High School. Scott makes beef production relate-able to each student in the class by giving samples of beef sticks or jerky and delivering a presentation entitled, “My Cheeseburger Came from the Farm.”

Is it any surprise that a tenderized ground round patty made from Certified Angus Beef® like he raises is one of Scott’s favorite quick meals? You can create a similar sandwich by asking the person behind your local meat counter to run ground round through the tenderizer before making it into patties.

Make a stop at the store, and fire up that grill!

We become what we practice… Some children pretend to fly a spaceship to the moon or treat their tricycles like they’re fire trucks. Others, like Andy Edson, practice becoming a business owner.

“A part of me has always thought like an entrepreneur,” says Edson, who farms with his parents Dave and Connie near Nashua in Northeast Iowa. “One of my favorite toys as a kid was a cash register. I’d take my sisters things and charge them to get it back,” he says as he gives a dimpled smile.

It wasn’t long before Andy’s interests moved into farming and raising cattle. He purchased his first heifer calf when he was 14 years old and a member of the Bradford Eager Beavers 4-H Club. He showed “Girl” in the 4-H Beef Show at the Chickasaw County Fair, and she became the foundation for his beef herd.

When Andy became old enough to join the Nashua-Plainfield FFA Chapter, beef became his Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE). He put so much time and effort into recordkeeping that he earned both the Iowa and the American FFA Degrees. Andy also had the honor of being named an American Star Farmer Finalist at the 2012 National FFA Convention in Indianapolis.

“Andy is an outstanding leader and has developed one of the most extensive SAE programs I have had the opportunity to work with in my 29 years of teaching agricultural education,” said FFA advisor Ron Zelle in a 2012 interview.

“I grew up around cattle. Dad always had about 50 Holstein steers, and I have great memories of helping him do chores from the time I was barely big enough to carry a bucket,” says Andy. “I started my own beef herd with one 4-H heifer and had 20 cows when I went to college. I didn’t think it was fair that my dad had to do so much of my work during the week, so I thinned down my herd. Girl is still a part of it, and she’s expecting her 10^th calf any day.”

The first calf drops on the Edson farm during March Madness and, if everything goes according to plan, they’re done calving before corn planting begins in April. Andy’s original plan was to sell club calves, but those plans changed when he had the opportunity to farm more ground.

Andy began renting farmland his freshman year of college. When an opportunity to rent a neighbor’s farm was presented during Andy’s senior year of college, he arranged his schedule so he didn’t have classes on Fridays or Mondays. That allowed him to make the two-hour drive home from college on Thursday night, so he could spend four days straight on his farm.

“I knew there was a future here for me. My dad is a good mentor, and I enjoy being my own boss. It just felt right for me to pursue farming fulltime,” says Andy. An internship through Iowa State’s Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative also helped confirm his decision because he missed the farm when he way away.

As a student in Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture & Life Sciences (CALS), Andy majored in Agricultural Business with a minor in Agronomy. Iowa State CALS pairs incoming freshmen with upper classmen mentors, and Andy was partnered with Carly Cummings and Elizabeth Burns-Thompson. Both Carly and Elizabeth were Ag Business majors, who were active in the student NAMA (National Agri-Marketing Association). They recruited Andy to the ISU NAMA marketing team. He was on the team for four years and was a member of one team that won the national competition!

“To prepare for the competition, we spent a lot of time finding research to help us make decisions. It was fun to see the marketing – not commodity marketing – side of agriculture. It helped me understand how different companies place products and why they’re targeting certain audiences,” says Andy.

“So much work goes into those marketing plans,” Andy goes onto explain. “Just learning the ‘whys’ behind the marketing decisions that a company makes can be applicable to any business. It really taught us a decision-making process.”

Andy puts those decision-making skills to use daily in his farming operation. His future plans include his family’s farming legacy.

“I hope to contribute to our operation and strengthen it while staying sustainable through the adoption of new technologies and exploring new business ventures,” says Andy. “Though my operation’s focus will continue to be on growing corn and soybeans, I’ll always keep a few cows around. They’ve always been a part of my life and there’s something about calving that never fails to give me a renewed appreciation for nature and the way of life that God has blessed me with.”

After working hard all day, Andy enjoys a home-cooked meal. Today he’s sharing two of his favorite recipes with us.

“I like recipes that are simple and delicious and both of these fit the bill,” says Andy. “This pot roast comes out tender and full of flavor while the bars provide a perfect end to the meal with a sneaky-good balance of sweet and salty.”