Master Farmers Pay Tribute to their Many Mentors

Rulons are Master Farmers

Jane and Ken RulonKen and Jane Rulon are married Indiana farmers who joined one other couple this year when they were both named Indiana Master Farmer. The Hamilton County couple from Arcadia was honored at the annual banquet in late June, an event they thoroughly enjoyed.

“It’s wonderful seeing all the people we have been working with throughout the years all together in one building,” Jane told HAT.

Ken added, “These awards reflect all the people who have touched your life as you go through. I mean Howard Doster is here who taught Jane and I both at Purdue, and there’s an awful lot of mentors in this room and the past award winners. As a family we’ve spent a lot of time networking with people, so just an awful lot of good old friends here today and we’re really enjoying it.”

The Rulon operation, known as Rulon Enterprises, includes corn, soybeans, hogs, and a satellite operation in Ohio. Ken says the motto “believe the data” applies on their farm.

“And what I mean by that is we believe that one acre soil grid fertility management is the right way to do it. It might be expensive. And we like the soil erosion equations. We believe the data. We believe the organic matter content matters.”

He also says the way they approach acquiring new information and ideas might be a little bit unique.

“We spend a lot of time traveling, talking to people and I think we’d be the first to admit that we haven’t had that many good ideas our self, but we really spend a lot of time and resource trying to get the best ideas from the guys in this room. We like to share with people and we have a website where we try to facilitate that sharing amongst people from all around the country, but again it’s the people in this room. Our operation is kind of an accumulation over a hundred years of those good influences.”

Jane says always working to improve interpersonal skills is important for them and other couples working together. Hear more in the HAT interview:Ken and Jane Rulon

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