GROWMARK Vice Chairman Rick Nelson Named Master Farmer

This post and photos courtesy of Josh Flint, associate editor, Prairie Farmer magazine.

Rick Nelson is one of those folks you could call a “details” guy. He likes learning the intricacies of everything from option strategies to computer spreadsheets to planter row units. He monitors every farm expense three different ways. And he pays attention to the details of cultivating relationships with family, friends and business associates.

That very attention to the finer points of his farm and his life has earned Rick the designation of Master Farmer in 2009. The Paxton farmer began farming with his father shortly after graduating from the University of Illinois in 1974.

Today, Rick farms 2,100 acres in rural Ford County. He relies on some part-time help, and now enjoys working with his son, Mike, who recently returned full-time to the farm. His wife, Pat, helps with bookwork and, as Rick says, “keeps the wheels turning.”

In addition to the farming operation, Rick runs an elevated scraper and a backhoe for building dams, berms, waterways, channels and basins. He strip tills about 60% of his corn and no-tills 60% of his beans. He added Trimble’s RTK autoguidance system this past fall, making it possible to accurately match his fall strip building and spring planting.

Off the farm, Rick serves as vice chair of the GROWMARK Board of Directors, as treasurer of Heritage FS and as president of Ludlow Cooperative Elevator. He also formed the East Central Illinois Cooperative Association to promote the benefits of cooperatives to young farmers.

A member of the local Gideons and of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Paxton, Rick has served in various deacon and board positions. He’s heavily involved in worship music and has taught Sunday School for the past decade. Rick and Pat have two sons, Chris and his wife, Sharon, and Mike and his wife Amanda.