It’s not often a U.S. Senator visits a farm, so when Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly scheduled a visit to Randy and Joyce Kron’s farm in Evansville, they were ready to demonstrate all the technology that is part of a modern farming operation. Randy is the Indiana Farm Bureau president and he told HAT they talked about ag issues, “but the focus was more on understanding what we do, understanding some of the precision agriculture, I call it prescription farming, and we talked a lot about variable rate seeding. We have an anhydrous toolbar so we can variable rate our anhydrous according to soil types and yield potential. And I tried to explain a little about how it works but also why we do it and how we go about it. it’s beneficial to the environment but also beneficial to the bottom line that we have here. we’re trying to make a black number at the bottom line this year.”
Kron hopes the senator can share his experience with his Washington DC colleagues. And he would like to see many of them visit a farm in their own home state.
“I think so many of them are so far removed from agriculture they don’t understand. I just think about the last 10 years and what’s changed in agriculture and how we’ve come so far in how we farm. Whether it’s the biotechnology or all the precision agriculture, what we’re doing has changed a lot and it has positive benefits for the farmer but also for the environment.”
Kron says it’s a good idea for Hoosier farmers to reach out and host local, state and even federal elected officials on the farm.
“Indiana farmers have a great story to tell and I’m proud of what they do. I think to be able to showcase what we do and why we do it, I’d take advantage of that any time we possibly could.”
The hope for the Thursday morning visit, the latest “Donnelly Day,” was that Donnelly would actually plant some corn and soybeans, but rains wiped out that opportunity. It’s been about 10 days since Kron has turned a wheel in a field. Hear more on the visit and spring planting here:Randy Kron on Sen Donnelly visit