Two Indiana couples represent four of the new Master Farmer class that was honored in late June. Del and Tammi Unger farm in Sullivan County about 30 miles south of Terre Haute in Carlisle, Indiana, and both are individual Master Farmers.
“We’re mainly grain crop farmers,” Tammi told HAT. “We do a lot of corn acres along with soybeans and wheat but our primary goal is corn on corn for our operation.”
Tammi Unger said the master farmer is “a very large honor. Del’s father Howard won this a few years back and it is definitely an honor to be representative of the master farmers.”
The Ungers farm together but the family operation now extends beyond just the two of them, according to Del.
“Obviously Tammi is an integral part of the operation and we couldn’t do anything without her, but we’re very fortunate and blessed. We’ve got two children, Adair and Lance, both Purdue graduates and both back involved in our operation. Adair, our daughter, spreads all our fertilizer and does all our chemical spraying for us. Our son Lance is back and involved fulltime in the operation. We’re very fortunate to have both those kids have a love and desire to be involved in production agriculture.”
The Unger farm was one of those in southwest Indiana bombarded by rain this spring.
“Well it’s one of those challenges that we face and one of those things that we can’t control. You try to manage it as best you can. We’re going to have some holes and ponds and pockets where we don’t have anything from excess and standing water.
At the time of the banquet he didn’t have all of his acres planted and didn’t know if time and weather would ultimately allow those acres to yield a crop this year. Del details just how much rain they dealt with leading up to the Master Farmer banquet in the HAT interview:Del and Tammi Unger