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Slideshow: Check out how these hardworking farm kids spent their quarantine days this spring and summer, with stories straight from them and their parents!

Holly Spangler, Senior Editor, Prairie Farmer

July 24, 2020

9 Slides

Time with family. Time learning things they wouldn’t have learned otherwise. Lemonade from lemons.

These are the phrases that have peppered farm family conversations since the start of Illinois’ COVID-19 quarantine, as kids came home from school and immersed themselves in farm family life. And it’s why Prairie Farmer wanted to take a look at what families have experienced — both in terms of what farm kids have lost and what they’ve gained.

This is the third in a four-part series. Check out the other three parts here:

Living the farm kid quarantine life
• Farm kid quarantine: Nurses, runners and wrestlers
Farm kid quarantine, captured on video

Click through the slideshow for stories straight from the families themselves — plus some hilarious photos of real, honest, farm kid quarantine life!

Read more about:

Covid 19

About the Author(s)

Holly Spangler

Senior Editor, Prairie Farmer, Farm Progress

Holly Spangler has covered Illinois agriculture for more than two decades, bringing meaningful production agriculture experience to the magazine’s coverage. She currently serves as editor of Prairie Farmer magazine and Executive Editor for Farm Progress, managing editorial staff at six magazines throughout the eastern Corn Belt. She began her career with Prairie Farmer just before graduating from the University of Illinois in agricultural communications.

An award-winning writer and photographer, Holly is past president of the American Agricultural Editors Association. In 2015, she became only the 10th U.S. agricultural journalist to earn the Writer of Merit designation and is a five-time winner of the top writing award for editorial opinion in U.S. agriculture. She was named an AAEA Master Writer in 2005. In 2011, Holly was one of 10 recipients worldwide to receive the IFAJ-Alltech Young Leaders in Ag Journalism award. She currently serves on the Illinois Fairgrounds Foundation, the U of I Agricultural Communications Advisory committee, and is an advisory board member for the U of I College of ACES Research Station at Monmouth. Her work in agricultural media has been recognized by the Illinois Soybean Association, Illinois Corn, Illinois Council on Agricultural Education and MidAmerica Croplife Association.

Holly and her husband, John, farm in western Illinois where they raise corn, soybeans and beef cattle on 2,500 acres. Their operation includes 125 head of commercial cows in a cow/calf operation. The family farm includes John’s parents and their three children.

Holly frequently speaks to a variety of groups and organizations, sharing the heart, soul and science of agriculture. She and her husband are active in state and local farm organizations. They serve with their local 4-H and FFA programs, their school district, and are active in their church's youth and music ministries.

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