By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — When humans began cultivating seeds for food thousands of years ago, scholars agree women and men enjoyed equal status in the field and garden – it was a lot of work, lifespans were short and all hands were needed.
When she was a child growing up in Columbus, Ind., Susan Arnholt, 61, and her older sister were fortunate to have a father who taught them about the family farm, despite the fact that agriculture had become a male-dominated field.
“Girls weren’t supposed to do agriculture … but I was always tagging along with Dad,” she explained, adding she spent 10 years in 4-H showing horses and cattle, in addition to driving a tractor on the farm. “There weren’t girls in the FFA back then.
“Girls were invited to the dance; they were not in (the organization). Women had a place, and everyone knew it.”
A woman’s place now is increasingly out front – from running the farm to plowing, from managing finances to expanding what “agriculture” means in other industries such as public relations and marketing.
Arnholt and Kenda Resler-Friend, 38, winners of the 2007 Purdue University Women in Agriculture awards, represent two points on this spectrum.
Presented by Purdue Cooperative Extension Service and Farm Credit Services of Mid-America, this is the second year for the awards.
Stacy Clupper, awards coordinator, said last year the extension work team chose one winner, but want to recognize there’s more than one way to lead in agriculture. Arnholt received the Achievement Award, which Clupper said is to recognize traditionally “hands-on” farm work, while the Leadership Award won by Friend is broader for ag in other industries, and policymaking.
“They’re go-getters,” she said of what the two have in common. “They’re active in their communities. They’re very supportive of agriculture and what it has to offer.”
Achievement winner Arnholt lives four miles from where she grew up in Bartholomew County. She is co-owner and manager of Sudan Farm, Inc., which she and husband Dan have had since 1983. It is a 1,057-acre corn and soybean operation. In addition, she and her sister-in-law own a bed-and-breakfast.
When she was in high school, Arnholt met a dentist who’d broken his arm and asked her to exercise his horse while he recovered.
Later, he offered her a job as a dental hygienist and she went to Indiana University for a year after graduation for training, while Dan attended Purdue.
The couple bought their first farm in 1968 in Columbus, both also working full-time jobs on the side. Arnholt spent 25 years as a hygienist before going back to school in her late forties.
“I was getting a little bit burned out from it,” she said. “A lot burned out, actually.”
She took an eight-week short course at Purdue in general agriculture in 1993, which consisted of full days of ag engineering, economics, botany and agronomy, among other subjects. “It was overwhelming,” she said, pointing out the other students were college freshmen.
After earning her certificate, she would occasionally ask Dan about something new or unfamiliar.
“I went to him with questions,” she explained, “and he always threw it back in my lap and said, ‘You have to make the decision.’ And it made me angry, so I’d try all the harder,” she laughed.
It was his way of helping her learn to take over the farm’s management.
“That’s not easy for a man to say that, for what he’s already doing,” she said in praise.
Several years ago, she was appointed as minority representative on her county Farm Service Agency committee. Not long after, she was elected to a seat, and is currently its chairperson. She also belongs to Bartholomew County Modern Farmers, Farm Bureau and Bartho-lomew County Pork Producers.
“There’s always something different on the horizon,” she said, adding the advent of technology in ag keeps creating more learning opportunities.
The couple have two sons – Cory, 36, and Clint, 30, who works on the farm – and four grandchildren.
Leadership winner
Friend grew up on a small horse and cattle farm in Elkhart County, the daughter of teachers. Her grandparents were farmers and like Arnholt, she spent 10 years in 4-H.
In fact, she knows Dan from serving with him on a couple of boards – “It’s a small world here in Indiana agriculture,” she explained.
While earning a bachelor’s degree in public relations at Purdue, Friend covered the College of Agriculture for the campus newspaper. After graduation, she worked for the Purdue Alumni Assoc. while earning a master’s in extension education. She spent several years working in ag communications for firms in New Jersey and Georgia before returning to Indianapolis about seven years ago.
She is now corporate communications leader for Dow AgroSciences, where she also manages important external funding projects. She considers herself lucky to have a career promoting agriculture.
“Agriculture is so important to the world around us,” she said. “At the one (firm), we had a fake-fingernail account, and I told them, ‘If the fake-fingernail account went away tomorrow, we’d still be here.’ Not the same with agriculture.”
In addition, Friend also serves on the national FFA convention organizing and hospitality committees and is on the board of the Indiana Agricultural Leadership Institute, of which she was also in Class 11 when it traveled to South America. She has served on the boards of directors for Purdue College of Agriculture and the Indiana 4-H Foundation.
“There’s never been a better time to be involved in ag,” she said, explaining the public is now paying more attention to and is willing to learn about it. “I think people just need to stay aware of agriculture in their local and state and national economies.”
Friend and her husband, Brian, daughter Klaine, 5, and son Kaden, 3, have a herd of small pets at home. “I’m just surprised she doesn’t have a horse,” said her mother, Fancheon Resler.
This farm news was published in the Aug. 22, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
