McHenry County Farm Bureau

06/15/2026

Foundation scholarship winners announced

John W Hoffman Memorial Scholarship

John Hoffman was a long-time member of the Northeastern Illinois Twin Cylinder Club (NEITCC) and served on its board of directors. He was an integral member of the Club, a 41-year employee of Alliance Contractors, Inc., a tractor restoration expert, and a member of the agricultural community.

NEITCC previously decided that a scholarship benefiting someone from the next generation of farmers or tradesmen was a fitting tribute to a man who volunteered constantly and was always willing and able to help. It would be John's hope that a scholarship in his memory would go to someone with the same love of farming and/or the trades that he had.

Gabrielle Christopher of Marengo is this year’s recipient of the $1,500 scholarship that is administered through the McHenry County Farm Bureau Foundation. Christopher will continue her education in Agricultural Crop & Soil Sciences. Gabrielle is the daughter of Todd and Jennifer Christopher.

Honorary Women’s Committee Scholarship

This scholarship honors the years of service that our Women’s Committee has provided McHenry County Farm Bureau and its Foundation. Our Women’s Committee is excited to announce that their $1,500 scholarship winner is Kyle Ainger of Harvard. He will continue his education in Dairy Science Technology. Kyle is the son of Alan and Katie Ainger.

McHenry County Farm Bureau Foundation Scholarships

In addition to the named scholarships above, McHenry County Farm Bureau Foundation selected four additional students for general scholarships bringing this year’s total funding to $7,500.

Lillian Behrens of Huntley who will continue her education in Agribusiness and Ag Communications. Lillian is the daughter of Ron Behrens and Michele Aavang-Behrens.

Brooke Slepcevich of Harvard who will continue her education in Animal Science. Brooke is the daughter of Ben and Mary Slepcevich.

Kate Weber of Wonder Lake who will continue her education Agricultural and Biological Engineering. Kate is the daughter of Kenneth Weber and Melissa Backe.

Sayla Wilken of Burlington who will continue her education in Landscape Architecture. Sayla is the daughter of Richard Wilken and Michelle & Bill Davis.

06/10/2026

Last Call: We have room for a couple more teachers

Summer Ag Institute - June 16, 17, 18, and 19

Our air-conditioned motor coach will visit farms and agriculture-related sites. Staff specialists will provide in-class activities set to Common Core and Next Gen standards. Professional development hours and the lunches are provided to participants free of charge thanks to our generous donors. Two hours of graduate credit are available for an extra fee.

Sponsored by McHenry and Lake County Farm Bureaus.

https://mchenrycfb.org/Education/summer-ag-institutes

06/08/2026

Early registration is now open for this year's Tractor Trek.
Funds raised from this event support Ag in the Classroom.
Route details will be posted in July.
https://mchenrycfb.org/tractor-trek

06/06/2026

Summer Ag Institute
June 16, 17, 18, and 19
Open to Lake and McHenry County teachers
We have room for a few more teachers - FCFS
https://mchenrycfb.org/Education/summer-ag-institutes

06/02/2026

Red, White and Moo: Harvard Milk Days Reaches Milestone, Honors USA 250

by Mike Orso

When Milk Days officially begins in the northern McHenry County community of Harvard this Friday, June 5, it will mark the 85th year of what organizers call “the longest ongoing hometown festival in Illinois.”

What started as a one-day, WWII-era event to honor area dairy farmers and its industry sector that included more than a half-dozen companies in the area that processed milk, cheese and other dairy products, has since expanded to three days with some events that even took place last month.

“A lot of them don’t last five years,” said Mike Bannwolf, president and general chairman of the Harvard Milk Days (HMDs) board of directors, about other community festivals around the state and nation. “Our basis of operation starts with the farming industry, specifically dairy, and we just carried on a tradition since day one in 1942.”

This year’s theme recognizes the event’s more than eight decades along with our nation’s sestercentennial with the theme, “Celebrating USA 250 in Red, White and Moo.” It has marked the start of summer in the northern McHenry County town since its inception.

“Back then, you could watch it being put up from the schools,” said Lori Moller, board secretary and co-chair of the event’s 5K/10K Milk Run/Walk, about some of her favorite Milk Days memories. ”Nobody got any work done the last week of school because everyone was just watching the grounds go up.”

The three-day festival, June 5, 6, 7, has moved around town as both have grown. Milky Way Park, 300 Lawrence Rd., now hosts most activities and events.

“They used to set up right next to Jefferson School which is at the northern part of town not too far from the high school,” said Michele Bannwolf, board treasurer. “Teachers gave up because heads were turned. It’s the kickoff to the summer around here.”

In addition to the tried-and-true traditions of HMDs carnival midway, country breakfast, parade, milk drinking contest, community church service, dairy cattle show, milking demonstrations, classic rock closing band, fireworks and others, organizers hope a series of new attractions, many of them free, will excite and entertain visitors. They include a roving magic show, farm animal races, a kid bucks game show, water walking balls, and a night of professional wrestling, on Friday, June 5, by Fox Lake-based POWW Entertainment.

“In the board meetings we kind of threw out different ideas and this appealed to us,” said Mike Bannwolf. “We’re now trying to work out how to set up the wrestling arena in the tent. We’ll make it work.”

The event utilized the expansion of a dairy building at Milky Way Park last year for its junior dairy cattle show and additional improvements have been made.

“That’s because the dairy show was growing,” said Mike Bannwolf. “We want to keep accommodating it.”

This Saturday, June 6 will be all things milk, starting with the Milk Run/Walk at 8 a.m., Country Breakfast at 9 a.m., Milk Days Parade at 1 p.m., Milk Drinking Contest at 4 p.m., and Milking Contest at 5 p.m., featuring Michael Kelly, Harvard mayor and invited mayors from other nearby communities. On Sunday, June 7, the junior dairy cattle show takes place at noon.

Seven different milk processing companies once called Harvard and its surrounding area home. They included Baldwin Dairy, Borden, Bowman, Cold Spirit Creamery, Dean Milk Co., PMA Pure Milk, and Progressive Dairy. Edwardsville-based Prairie Farms Dairy, affiliated with the Illinois Farm Bureau, and which operates a dairy processing plant in Rockford, now serves as a major HMDs sponsor. It supplies thousands of cartons of milk given away during the event as well as other dairy products. Sauk Valley Bank of Harvard, another major sponsor, has helped spearhead renovation of the beloved, fiberglass Harmilda cow statue area at what is known as Five Points Park in Harvard. Improvements at the busy and highly visible intersection include a new mural, artificial turf, fresh stain on its split-rail fence and lighting.

“It will be done by this year’s event,” said Mike Bannwolf.

It’s free to venture throughout the alcohol-free HMDs grounds at Milky Way Park, but there is an $8 fee to utilize the parking area provided. The grounds offer such things as a 24-ride carnival midway, food court, cow chip lotto, petting zoo, chainsaw carver, milking demonstrations and much more. For a complete list of specific activities, dates and times, see the event’s website at https://milkdays.com/.

For more local stories visit https://mchenrycfb.org/ and look for the MLO Around McH tab.

05/30/2026

Special thanks to Congressman Brad Schneider and his staff for taking time out of their busy schedules to visit with a few of our farmer leaders today. We would also like to thank Hogan Seed Sales for serving as the host of the meeting and Rebecca Barnett, IFB Director of National Legislation, for driving up and joining us.

05/29/2026

Planting Results in Long Days, Nights for Many McHenry County Farmers

By Mike Orso

Get to know Bruce Meier
1) Favorite sports team: Chicago Bears
2) Favorite place to eat in McHenry County: Crandall’s
3) Favorite crop I grow: Corn
4) What I listen to when I’m planting: Agricultural podcasts
5) If I wasn’t farming I’d be: In construction

McHenry County farm fields and rural roads buzzed with activity over the last month or so as this year’s planting season winds down. Despite the month of April that provided more than twice the normal rainfall in most areas of the county, early-to-mid-May provided a drier, albeit sometimes chillier window ahead of the most recent warm stretch for fruit, grain, oilseed and vegetable planting.

“Planting in spring of ’25 you could go out and plant every field wherever you go,” said Hebron-area farmer Bruce Meier, as he recently wrapped up corn and soybean seed sowing. “You didn’t have to make a plan. This year has been more of a challenge picking the right field to go to on the right day.”

That can translate into many long days and even nights with twists and turns dealing with items such as some intriguing soil conditions.

“When we have a high-water table, the water starts pushing out of the ground,” said Meier. “You’ll have a spot about as small as a coffee can or as large as a Volkswagen where water will just come up. It’ll be there one day and the next day it will be gone.”

Other planting season issues can include equipment breakdowns and uncooperative motorists, both that can quickly derail progress. About a decade ago, a young motorist tried to pass Meier on his tractor and planter in a no-pass zone as he tried to make a left turn into a farm field off Vanderkaar Rd. in the northern part of the county.

“I just caught the right side of her car with my front tire,” said Meier. “Fortunately, I saw her and I pulled my right tire back or I could’ve pushed her off into a tree.”

Another challenge that may continue beyond planting includes a lack of farm profitability, largely driven, Meier said, by higher costs for critical planting-related items. After adjusting for inflation, the USDA Economic Research Service recently projected net farm income to decrease by $4.1 billion (2.6 percent) in 2026 relative to 2025.

“Fertilizer and diesel fuel costs have spiked,” said Meier. “Those are probably the two biggest drivers right now.”

Longer-term, solar panel installations, data centers and urban sprawl continue to test several McHenry County and other Illinois farmers. Meier’s farm family know the consequences of urban sprawl well, having relocated three times over the last seven decades as a result. In the late 1950s, the family moved from their farm in Mt. Prospect to one on Golf Course Rd. on what then was the western edge of Crystal Lake. Many longtime residents of the city remember the farm for its fresh sweet corn, pumpkins and other fruits and vegetables.

“It started out as just a wagon out front,” said Meier. “Then we remodeled and remodeled and then put in a couple of coolers.”

Surrounded by subdivisions in the late 1980s, the family sold most of that farm and purchased another near Huntley. Then Lake in the Hills and Huntley rapidly expanded too, so the family sold it, the Crystal Lake homestead and relocated to one near Hebron in the late 1990s.

Meier, 61, graduated from Crystal Lake South in 1982 as part of the very first class to start as freshmen when the city added its second high school. He attended McHenry County College for two years and then achieved a degree in farm operations from Illinois State University. He believes variety is what makes farming enjoyable.

“Every day is different,” said Meier. “I mean, one morning we were in a tile trench fixing a broken tile. Then, I’m getting ready to start planting soybeans in the afternoon.”

He also serves as the only volunteer McHenry County Farm Bureau board member at present to have also once served as the organization’s president.

“We have a young board with lots of good ideas,” said Meier. “I like to see that. I like the direction it’s going in.”

Meier and his wife Patty enjoy spending time with their three adult children, their families and especially their first grandchild, who arrived over the last year. That hasn’t happened much in recent weeks since spending 12-14 hours a day planting and its related chores can consume many spring days.

“I’ve had a love of the soil my whole life,” he said. “I like planting a seed and watching it grow and nurturing it to fruition to harvest season. I enjoy that.”

For more local stories visit https://mchenrycfb.org/ and look for the MLO Around McH tab.

05/22/2026

May is National Beef Month!
We have dedicated a whole page of our website just to beef. Learn about beef, learn how to select it, and get some great recipes.

Learn about Beef: Do you know how many pounds of beef the average American eats in a year? Do you know the 10 essential nutrients that are found in beef? A single cow hide can produce how many footballs? Click on the picture above to answer these questions and learn more. Sustainable Beef Strengthen...

05/11/2026

Watch Out for Unexpected Turns!

The most common farm-related vehicle accidents occur when motorists try to pass farm vehicles, especially as they are turning left. The tractor appears to be pulling to the right side to allow cars to pass but is really preparing to make a wide left turn. Think ahead and check the left side of the road for gates or driveways and watch closely for hand or turn signals.

Watch Your Speed! Since many farm vehicles cannot travel more than 30 mph, they are more likely to get rear-ended by faster moving vehicles. As you approach a slow-moving vehicle, the distance between the two of you will disappear a lot faster than you might think. Since it’s difficult to judge traffic speed from a distance, slow down as soon as you see an SMV emblem.

Getting caught behind slow moving farm equipment for two miles is equivalent to waiting for two stoplights in the city. Stay back, enjoy the scenery, and share the road while farmers work to feed you and your family.

05/01/2026

“My Barn – My Rules” Helps Guide this McHenry County Teacher
By Mike Orso

Get to Know Leah Hossfeld
1. Favorite food: Baked potato
2. Favorite movie or TV Show: “Yellowstone”
3. Favorite musician or entertainer: Taylor Swift
4: Favorite class I took in college: Animal Science
5. If I wasn’t teaching, I’d be: Referee for the Puppy Bowl

A small, rectangular plaque hangs on the wall behind Mrs. Hossfeld’s classroom desk at Harvard High School with the words, “My Barn – My Rules” on top of each other. Perhaps the subtle, yet firm message helps set ground rules for students of the school’s sole agriculture teacher, in a classroom that, similar to many barns, includes live animals.

“I get told that I’m not like a traditional teacher,” said Leah Hossfeld, 35, who instructs at the same high school she graduated from 17 years ago. “I don’t know if it’s because I never went to school to be a traditional teacher or if it’s the nature of the program in general.”

Hossfeld leads one of three agricultural-related curriculums in McHenry County high schools. A local farm kid, she heeded the call in 2013 when the community where she grew up needed someone new to guide the same program she took advantage of when she went to Harvard High.

“I didn’t go to school to be a teacher,” said Hossfeld, who achieved a bachelor’s degree in agricultural leadership earlier that same year from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). “I got a call that they really needed a teacher here, so I came here.”

She’s glad she did, and apparently the school and community are too. Close to 100 of the school’s approximately 700 teen-aged students take advantage of her classes that include Animal Science, Biology in Agriculture, Horticulture, Introduction to Agriculture, Landscaping, and Supervised Agricultural Experience.

“It’s a lot of classes, a lot of prep, like six different presentations a day, if you really think of it,” said Hossfeld, who then achieved a master’s degree in agricultural education from UIUC in 2021. “You get good at it and I get to use the same stuff year after year. I always make it better.”

Hossfeld grew up in rural Harvard on a family farm that included raising dairy heifer replacement cows and growing corn and soybeans. She participated in 4H and the local chapter of the National FFA Organization, which she now advises in her position at the high school. Earlier this year, she received the Illinois FFA Section 6 Golden Owl Award for “agricultural educators who devote countless hours, and often their own resources, to positively impact the lives of their students.”
Hossfeld’s FFA group also receives significant support from Harvard High alumni, many who took advantage of its ag-related courses and participated in FFA when they were in school. In fact, the FFA alumni group farms land owned by School District 50 not far from the high school campus. Proceeds from crops raised help support the chapter and school ag programs.

“The school rents them 38 acres, they farm it for us,” said Hossfeld. “We get to use that money. They are like our booster club that fund most of our events.”

The FFA chapter at Harvard and ones at schools in Alden-Hebron and Marengo also receive support from the McHenry County Farm Bureau (MCFB). The organization helps fund popular field trips such as a recent one to Midwest Trading/Midwest Ground Covers in St. Charles, and others.

“Every other year, they sponsor us to go to the Farm Progress Show (in Decatur),” said Hossfeld, who, since 2016, serves as a volunteer member of the MCFB board of directors. “They do their Ag Acquaintance Day trip,” which allows county high school students to visit farms and other agricultural businesses in Illinois and Wisconsin.

One of Hossfeld’s former students now practices veterinary medicine, and at least two have achieved advanced degrees to be agricultural high school teachers like her. While teaching may not have been the career she originally envisioned, the very nature of it allows her to put her agricultural leadership skills to work in many different ways.

“The first two years were hard, but I made it,” she said. “I thought I would do it for a year and I just haven’t left. It’s a fun job. It’s always something new and we’re always doing something different.”

For more local stories visit https://mchenrycfb.org/ and look for the MLO Around McH tab.