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Editor makes a homecoming of sorts to Minnesota agriculture.

Kevin Schulz, Editor

January 13, 2023

3 Min Read
farmer's boots beside bean plant
BACK HOME: After a brief rerouting, Kevin Schulz returns to cover Minnesota agriculture and the people who provide food, fuel and fiber for the growing world.Andy Sacks/Getty Images

What a way to ring in the new year! After surviving the Christmas blizzard that hit most of the country, I kicked off 2023 with a new title and a new job — editor of The Farmer.

Paula Mohr retired at the end of 2022 after 18 years with Farm Progress, and I know that these will be big shoes to fill, but I am up to the challenge.

I come to The Farmer from our neighbors to the west — Dakota Farmer and Nebraska Farmer — where I have been senior staff writer for the past couple of years. I joined the Farm Progress team in 2014 as senior staff writer for National Hog Farmer magazine. My ag journalism career goes back to 1990, when I started with a publication outside of the Farm Progress family covering Minnesota agriculture. So, I am coming home, so to speak.

As a farm kid of the ’80s, I was encouraged to get a college degree and then maybe come back to the farm. That college degree, in ag journalism no less, took me to a very brief stint working for an Iowa newspaper. I then returned to my native state to work for a couple of southern Minnesota newspapers as a general news reporter, before focusing solely on agriculture for the past 33 years. Though it never worked to return to the family farm, I have remained close, helping in the fall as my schedule allowed until my brother’s retirement in 2016.

I have been very fortunate that for other than that short stint in Iowa, I have been able to call Minnesota “home” for my working career. I did attend college at South Dakota State University — and the Jackrabbits are still near and dear to my heart — but Minnesota is my home.

History with The Farmer

My connection to The Farmer goes back further than my journey down the journalism road.

Growing up on a corn, soybean and hog farm in south-central Minnesota, The Farmer always had a place in our mail pile and was thoroughly read. Little did I know way back when that I would one day be the editor of this fine magazine.

Our Farm Progress family has a herd of talented writers and editors across the country, many of whom have contributed to The Farmer over the years. Paula has been gracious enough to print some of the articles penned by yours truly from time to time — mostly the “Hog Outlook” column that I started providing for the Farm Progress magazines over the past year.

I look forward to meeting new faces, and also rekindling old friendships in the Minnesota agriculture circle.

I also look forward to continuing the legacy that Paula Mohr carried on from those who came before her. Editors and writers do what we do for you, the reader. With that in mind, I feel it is my duty to give you what you want to see in your magazine.

Please feel free to drop me a line at [email protected] to offer story ideas, or just comments about what you would like to see more or less of in The Farmer.

About the Author(s)

Kevin Schulz

Editor, The Farmer

Kevin Schulz joined The Farmer as editor in January of 2023, after spending two years as senior staff writer for Dakota Farmer and Nebraska Farmer magazines. Prior to joining these two magazines, he spent six years in a similar capacity with National Hog Farmer. Prior to joining National Hog Farmer, Schulz spent a long career as the editor of The Land magazine, an agricultural-rural life publication based in Mankato, Minn.

During his tenure at The Land, the publication grew from covering 55 Minnesota counties to encompassing the entire state, as well as 30 counties in northern Iowa. Covering all facets of Minnesota and Iowa agriculture, Schulz was able to stay close to his roots as a southern Minnesota farm boy raised on a corn, soybean and hog finishing farm.

One particular area where he stayed close to his roots is working with the FFA organization.

Covering the FFA programs stayed near and dear to his heart, and he has been recognized for such coverage over the years. He has received the Minnesota FFA Communicator of the Year award, was honored with the Minnesota Honorary FFA Degree in 2014 and inducted into the Minnesota FFA Hall of Fame in 2018.

Schulz attended South Dakota State University, majoring in agricultural journalism. He was also a member of Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and now belongs to its alumni organization.

His family continues to live on a southern Minnesota farm near where he grew up. He and his wife, Carol, have raised two daughters: Kristi, a 2014 University of Minnesota graduate who is married to Eric Van Otterloo and teaches at Mankato (Minn.) East High School, and Haley, a 2018 graduate of University of Wisconsin-River Falls. She is married to John Peake and teaches in Hayward, Wis. 

When not covering the agriculture industry on behalf of The Farmer's readers, Schulz enjoys spending time traveling with family, making it a quest to reach all 50 states — 47 so far — and three countries. He also enjoys reading, music, photography, playing basketball, and enjoying nature and campfires with friends and family.

[email protected]

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