Rhonda Oesch

We live in Livingston County, west of Chillicothe in Northwest Missouri. On our farm we have Red Angus cattle as well as soy, corn and wheat.  My son also has an excellent alfalfa hay and straw business that helps put him through college. We purchased our first farm and current home in 1999, his parents’ farm in 2000, and subsequent farms in 2012 and 2013.

Tractors should definitely be green!

My involvement in agriculture has steadily increased over the years. As a mom, I wanted to assure my friends and family that the food we grow is nutritious and safe. As an ag teacher, I wanted the students to know the science behind the decisions we make each day on the farm that lead to safe and nutritious food. As a farm owner, I have seen the need over the years for voices just like mine and my husband’s to be heard from the local town hall to the halls of Congress.  Whether it be at the local, state, or national level, there are an endless number of laws affecting our livelihood and way of life that we need to be first and foremost aware. And with that awareness sometimes comes action. We may need to write or call our congressmen or find out when they will be having meetings in our county. And sometimes it means a trip to see them so they know we mean business. With less than 2% of the population being in production agriculture, we cannot afford to let someone else who has no idea what we do and why make decisions that will affect us for a lifetime and especially into the next generation.

I love a good hot or iced latte with caramel!

Favorite planting or harvest snack for my family is some kind of ham & cheese sliders or warm, homemade chimichangas. And sometimes they get treated with KFC, which they love.  We don’t have one in our nearest town anymore, so it’s a little more of a drive, but that is what my mom loved to treat my dad with on Sundays if he was in the field. It’s nostalgic!

I grew up in Chillicothe, the daughter of a successful row crop farmer. I was the second oldest of 5 children. I also have two stepsisters. I was interested in agriculture, especially animals, but my dad was disabled from contracting polio when he was little, so we couldn’t have animals.

Fast forward to high school, I heard about FFA and really wanted to switch classes so I could have the fun classes like a lot of my friends. My counselor asked if I was going to college, and I said yes, and he replied with the antiquated sentiment… “Well then you don’t need FFA classes.”

When I went to college, I realized how wrong he was! I got engaged to my high school sweetheart, who was a cattleman, and changed my major to agriculture education. If I couldn’t take FFA classes, I wanted to teach them! I had grown up in 4-H so I had a lot of the same experiences in leadership as a lot of the FFA kids did, such as public speaking, so that helped me catch up quickly to what FFA was all about and what opportunities my students would have.  After I graduated from Northwest Missouri State University, I got married and started working as a tutor.

When I got pregnant with our first child my husband and I decided I should stay home and be a mom and a farm wife. I had 2 more children, and slowly as they got older, I started subbing at their school, and then I found the perfect part-time ag teaching job where I am still at today!  I get the best of both worlds! I get to work with some great students through FFA and teach them about agriculture while being a farm wife, handling everything from field dinners to bookkeeping to parts runs! I’m busy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My favorite ag influencers would have to be Iowa Dairy Farmer, Amanda Radke, TDF Honest Farming, Modern Day Farm Chick, Farm Babe and Peterson Farm Brothers, to name a few!

Our farming practices are like any other Missouri farm in that we are ever evolving with the new information, research and technology that our industry develops.  We implement terracing, no till planting, CRP and other practices that help conserve our soil and protect our resources.