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© Copyright Meredith Corporation, creator of homeandfamilynetwork.com
Loren Kruse |
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1716 Locust |
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Des Moines, Iowa 50309 |
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United States |
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E-mail: loren.kruse(at)meredith.com |
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Hi! I'm Loren Kruse, Editor-in-Chief of Successful Farming magazine. I live at Ankeny, Iowa, with my wife Liz and children John, and Kate. I also spend as much spare time as I can at my farm, Marketview Farm, in Grundy County, Iowa. Grundy Center is too far (100 miles) from Des Moines to live, but Marketview Farm is the home place where I was reared and where I'll always call "home." Marketview Farm is 160 acres but diverse by the corn-soybean standards of Grundy County. We raise corn and soybeans but also oats and alfalfa as part of the rotation. All of the work and management in those enterprises is done by my farm operator, Lou Ehrig, who also raises hogs and feeds out some locker beef. She does a great job of caring for the farm, and I was especially pleased I could help add a brand new "statistical farmer" to USDA's count when Lou took over as my farm operator nine years ago. All the labor I can give to the farm goes to our "choose and harvest" Christmas tree enterprise. I planted the first trees in 1981 and started selling in 1988. I have about 2,100 trees on two acres. (When it's 95 degrees and 95 percent humidity at shearing time in July, it seems like 2,000 acres!). We grow Scotch Pine, White Pine, Balsam Fir, Canaan Fir and Concolor Fir. Liz makes the wreaths we sell at the farm and at Ankeny. Liz and I enjoy an occasional golf outing and attending Iowa State University events, including sports. Liz is an ISU grad, so the toughest games are when my alma maters--Kansas State ( BS degrees in technical journalism and ag economics) and Oklahoma State (MS in rural adult education) clash with Iowa State in Big 12 Conference action. My family also enjoys a diversity of activities in Ankeny's Harvest Community Church, a little startup congregation with a name I especially love. I've been blessed with 26 great years on the staff of Successful Farming. I started here in 1976 as farm management editor, became managing editor in 1982 and editor-in-chief in 1988. Earlier in my career I had spent six years on the communications staff at Oklahoma State, first as 4-H editor and then as ag experiment station editor. |
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© Copyright Meredith Corporation, creator of homeandfamilynetwork.com |