Three Illinois producers will be honored as 2021 Master Farmers at Prairie Farmer magazine’s annual recognition program, being held for the first time during the Farm Progress Show, in Decatur on Sept. 2. The award recognizes exceptional agricultural production skills, commitment to family and service to community.

One of the honorees is Kenneth Hartman Jr. of Waterloo.

Known to his friends as “Kenny,” Hartman has been involved in the family farm his entire life, but it was 1983 when he joined Glendell Farms full time with his parents, Kenneth Sr. and Joann Hartman.

At that point, the family had a 150-head registered Holstein dairy operation and 700 acres of crop land near Waterloo. Kenny was also farming 100 acres on his own with his father’s equipment. Over the years, Kenny started farming more ground. His wife, Anita, joined the family in 1992. The couple has three children: Amanda, 26; Alexis, 23; and Ashley, 20.

After his father died in 2009, Kenny stepped up to help Joann head the operation. Today, the family has expanded to 4,000 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat.

Kenny says he has always had a passion for crop and dairy production, but coming back to the farm was not his first job out of college. After graduating in 1982 from Bryan Institute, Kenny worked at Magna Bank in Belleville as a computer operator. 

“I had to work from 6 at night until 2 in the morning, but then I would come home, sleep, and then I ended up working on the farm,” he said. “I was the only child, so my parents said, ‘Why don’t you come back to the farm?’ So, I came back to the farm.”

His computer programming degree has driven his interest in technology, which has kept the operation at the forefront of precision agriculture as an early adopter of yield mapping, grid soil sampling, variable-rate fertilizer and more. 

Kenny’s focus on technology, stewardship and family, all while serving his community, are what’s made him part of the 2021 class of Master Farmers.

“The Master Farmer award is Illinois agriculture’s lifetime achievement award,” said Holly Spangler, Prairie Farmer editor. “These farmers are at the top of their game, and this award is based on their entire body of work in the field, in the family and in the community.”

Prairie Farmer first offered the Master Farmer award 96 years ago in 1925. Editors have continued the tradition annually since 1968, following a pause initially caused by the Great Depression. When Editor Clifford Gregory established the Master Farmer program, he felt the award would help give farm people a greater sense of “pride and permanence.” 

Nearly 350 Illinois producers have been inducted as Master Farmers or Honorary Master Farmers over the program’s history.

Kenny was nominated by 2015 Master Farmer Randy DeSutter.