Chris Mann talks with HAT

Chris Mann Among 2009 Master Farmers 09/22/2009Andy Eubank
Being named an Indiana Master Farmer is always a humbling experience. It is a unique honor that puts the farmer in a class with decades of successful Indiana farmers. The history of the award was not lost on Chris Mann from Cloverdale in Putnam County, one of this year’s winners.When HAT congratulated him for the achievement, humble was one of the first words we heard. “Thank you very much. I’m very honored and humbled to be considered an Indiana Master Farmer. I was shocked when I learned I had received the award, but I’m very honored and humbled to join such a distinguished group of farmers in the state.”Mann has been farming since 1995 with his father and three brothers in a general partnership arrangement. It’s a group that is strengthened by different educational backgrounds. “We all work together as a team and find tremendous value in that. Two of my brothers are economists, but I’m an agronomist and engineer, so I focus on the agronomic components of our farm and the engineering projects we do with our farm. That’s the area I focus to help make our farm as efficient and profitable as possible.”The Mann operation is what he calls a typical Indiana farm of corn, soybeans, and wheat. They grow 7500 acres of mostly corn and beans, plus there is livestock. Mann told HAT, “We finish 20,000 head of finished hogs per year, so we’re a diversified farm which there are less and less of in Indiana. But we find a tremendous strength to that even though the hog market hasn’t been real good lately. Hogs have been very good to our farm over the decades.”
It doesn’t take long talking with Chris Mann to learn of his passion for education and involvement, and his optimism for the future of agriculture. He explained, “We are by far the foundation of the economy for this great nation. We’ve added fuel to the mix of ag products and I’m very excited about our future. We have challenges with certain regulations that are just going to keep coming at us in agriculture. But it think it’s important that farmers be involved with political action, with Farm Bureau and other organizations, to make sure at least the regulations are science-based, and keep things as common sense as possible. But I think our future is very bright.”Learn more about Chris Mann at the HAT blog site, hatchat.net.The 2009 Master Farmers were recognized in late July by Indiana Prairie Farmer and Purdue University Extension and College of Agriculture.