WINGATE, Ind. – She went to college to become a nurse, but she couldn’t ignore her deep roots in agriculture.

Sina Parks, 39, is now helping farmers succeed financially long term while helping them improve the health of their land and efficiency of their operations.

“I’m just another tool in the toolbox to be able to help those farmers with those changes when they’re ready,” she said.

The central Indiana woman specializes in stewardship and sustainability in her role with Ceres Solutions, a 100-percent farmer owned cooperative based in Crawfordsville, about 50 miles northwest of Indianapolis. 

Ceres Solutions serves farmers in 35 counties across Indiana and Michigan with energy, agronomy, seed and animal nutrition products and services. The firm of more than 650 employees also provides farmers with information, technology solutions and resources to help producers succeed.

Parks has been helping to provide local growers with information needed to plan, plant and maintain a variety of cover crops that will reduce compaction, prevent erosion, tap nutrients in deep soil and maintain soil health at optimal levels.

“Cover crops can help achieve all these objectives, when you know the right crops and the right solutions for your specific goals,” she said.

Parks grew up on a farm raising primarily corn and soybeans in Wingate, about 15 miles from Crawfordsville.

She went to Purdue University where, after three semesters, she changed her major from nursing to agricultural economics.

“That’s been one of the best decisions I ever made in my life,” she said.

After receiving her degree, Parks said she and her husband, Mickey, moved to Texas where he ran a swine operation. They met during their involvement in the Montgomery County 4-H program.

Eventually, they moved back to Indiana where Parks worked briefly at Purdue before taking a job in agricultural finance.

“There I got to see firsthand how input costs and commodity prices can impact a farmer for good and bad,” she said.

Parks said she liked the job but found her true calling several years later when presented with the opportunity to become conservation director at the Montgomery County Soil and Water Conservation District.

Her focus was helping farmers with different areas of conservation and securing funding through USDA to offset their cost of becoming more environmentally friendly.

Her duties are similar with Ceres Solutions, where she has been since May 2021.

Parks is also a member of the Montgomery County Purdue Extension Board.

Her role on the board includes discussing how extension educators can become more of a resource for local farmers and calling attention to challenges producers are facing.

Parks said she’s grateful for the satisfaction she feels from her line of work, given the uncertainty experienced previously in her career path.

She said helping farmers and getting to know them personally along the way is what she likes most about her job. “I love to hear what motivates another farmer and why they do the things they do,” she said.

Parks said her husband runs another swine operation for the same company he worked for when they lived in Texas.

The family also raises about 85 ewes primarily for other people to use as show animals.

Parks said she very much enjoys carrying on a family tradition of sharing positive experiences together.

For example, her family now resides in the same house she grew up in after purchasing the house and a few surrounding acres from her parents, who moved about a quarter mile away to the dwelling her grandparents lived in.

The couple’s 15-year-old son, Kaden, is also involved in 4-H showing livestock. 

Parks said her father and her brother farm about 300 acres with help from other family members, which is what happened when her father grew up on the farm.

“Watching my parents make some memories my brother and I were able to make with our grandparents with their grandchildren now. There’s a lot of value in that for me,” she said.