The Force Behind 30 Days, An Illinois Farmer, Writer, Wife & Mom: Meet Holly Spangler #WomenInAg

“Inexplicably, I went off to college to be a doctor, but discovered this thing called ag communications within my first eight weeks on campus. I was sold. I clearly remember sitting in Mumford Hall and thinking, “These are my people.” I have never looked back.” Holly Spangler, Illinois farmer, writer, ag journalist, wife and mother.

Holly Spangler and I are cut from the same cloth and yet I have never met her “in real life”. I know that from reading her writing for years and interacting with her in social media. We share a love for Jesus, farm families, the land, our children, good jeans and scarves. We have oodles of shared, common friends but this coming January will be our first face-to-face meeting when she travels in the dead of winter to speak at an event 100 miles from me. I am going to do my very best to be there to give her a hug.

Holly has been a force behind me doing the “30 Days” features. Last year, she contacted me about doing it and I did a series and miserably failed at posting daily. I hate failing. It eats it at me. I have learned to live with failure but this was something I could fix. So earlier this fall, I contacted Holly about “30 Days” of ag-related topics again. I said I wanted to be a part of it and she explained what she was planning on doing, daily lists of 5 Things. 5 Things I Didn’t Know When I Married A Farmer, 5 Things I Have Learned About Grief, 5 Misleading Food Labels and many others that you can follow along with here.

I wouldn’t be featuring 30 Days of Women in Agriculture if it wasn’t for Holly Spangler. Therefore, featuring her is particularly special to me. We all need encouragement from time to time in our lives. A month ago, I didn’t know what this month was going to be. I couldn’t predict it. I have been thrown a few hard curve balls and been forced to keep going when I felt like hibernating this month. What Holly didn’t know is that featuring 30 Days of ag-related topics and blogging every day for the month of November, is an encouragement I needed this month. Thank you, Holly.

You each have the unique ability to encourage someone today. It can be in your workplace, your neighbor, a stranger at the grocery store, a widow in your community and the list goes on. But it also can be someone you have never met in real life but is someone you respect, trust and know through social media. The world is going to be a better place if we all are more like Holly Spangler.

Keep writing, Miss Holly. Keep encouraging others. I know I am not the only one grateful for your kindness.

Holly Spangler is from sunny southern, Albion, Illinois and currently resides in western Illinois at Marietta with her husband John and children Jenna, 10; Nathan, 8; Caroline, 5. John and Holly farm with her in-laws, Bruce and Sharon Spangler. Her father Wayne Hinderliter, farms in southern Illinois and she deeply misses her late mother, Susan Hinderliter. Meet Holly, in her own words.

What is your role in agriculture today? My husband likes to joke that there are not many things in life he is sure of, but he is sure the good Lord did not intend him to be a carpenter. I would say there are not too many things in life I’m sure of, either, but I am sure the Lord put me here to write about agriculture: to share its heart, soul and science. To tell its story with word and photo. I was ridiculously blessed to have secured a spot as a field editor for Prairie Farmer magazine before I graduated from college (and in case you’re wondering, that does kill your motivation to study). They let me work from home, here on our farm in western Illinois at a time when that was far less common than it is today. And I’ve been here ever since, in some iteration or capacity, practicing agricultural journalism here in Illinois.

In addition to your basic ag production and issue coverage, I started a column in the magazine in 2000, called My Generation. The point has been to write from the perspective of a young farmer, and I’ve wholeheartedly tried to do that. As we’ve matured, I am grateful we didn’t put the word young in the name of the column. But it’s also been fascinating to watch our generation mature into management and leadership roles on our respective operations, working alongside multiple generations, and learning from each other. Aside from producing food and fiber for the world, the ability to work as a family is one of the more beautiful parts of agriculture.

In 2008, we expanded my column into a blog of the same name, and I blog several times a week in an attempt to share the heart, soul and science of agriculture both with the farm community that inherently recognizes the strength of what we do, and with consumers who may not understand at all what we do.

Aside from all that, my husband and I farm, raising corn, soybeans and beef cattle. I am mom to three farm kids, and seeing them dirty, sweaty and clutching all manner of livestock, from barn kittens to show calves, makes me ridiculously happy. I pack lunches and make field dinners and drive the semi, as needed. And pull calves. But we won’t talk about that now.

How has agriculture shaped your life? I grew up on a farm in southern Illinois: corn, beans and cattle. Clearly, I didn’t wander far. I think the kids I went to school with thought of me as that weird farm girl. I once turned down a date because Dad had us painting the barn roof. I had to get a Class A license, so I could drive the truck and trailer, and grain trucks. Dad believed in equal-opportunity farm labor, meaning he knew girls could stack bales as well as boys. We showed Shorthorns, perhaps obsessively, and my first gig as an “agvocate” came in 1994, as a Shorthorn Lassie Queen. My tartan past. It was a window to another world for this southern Illinois farm girl; I got to travel to Canada to their National Shorthorn Show and to their Shorthorn Junior Nationals. I met breeders and made friends I still have today. We talked genetics and beef and nutrition. And we handed out a lot of ribbons.

Inexplicably, I went off to college to be a doctor, but discovered this thing called ag communications within my first eight weeks on campus. I was sold. I clearly remember sitting in Mumford Hall and thinking, “These are my people.” I have never looked back.

What excites you about your community? The history of our community is exciting. That I can look out my window and see fields harvested by families our family has known for decades. That I can count four of those families who have brought back the next generation – our age – and are working them into the operation. That each of those families have been resourceful in the ways they are making room and making income for an additional family: cattle feeding, hog buildings, grain set ups, custom work. That’s entrepreneurial and that’s exciting.

When was the last time you tried something for the first time? This fall, I have been tackling a project that’s been on my heart for some time: a book. The project de-railed during my mother’s illness but I am taking a {slight} sabbatical from work this fall to work on the book. The truly new part for me is to learn to write with more words. For 15 years, I have honed my ability to write tight: 600 words and only one page. Or, 200 to tell it quick. Now, I’ve got 80,000. It’s a little mind-boggling.

What do you do to encourage others? Who/what serves as a source of encouragement for you? A couple of years ago, Lindsey (Bowman) Sankey and I discovered each other via social media. She sent me a message about how she had clipped one of my columns from the Indiana Prairie Farmer, and had it pinned up on her inspiration bulletin board ever since. Earlier this year, she blogged about what that meant to her. And the funny thing about it was that the column, written about balancing a life with too many urgents that pressure the importants, was something I had written very late at night during a time when I wasn’t exactly feeling encouraged about life, myself. Two small children, too many things to do. So occasionally, when I think that what I’m doing is going to wind up in a dusty stack of magazines in someone’s attic for their grandchildren to someday find and sell on Ebay, I remember Lindsey and her very kind words.

And so the short answer to what encourages me and what I do to encourage others is the same: words. I think this is one reason I enjoy Facebook. It’s a daily opportunity to encourage someone. To reach out. To remind them that the highlight reel we see in social media every day cannot be compared to our background footage. And, quite honestly, to give glory to God. I don’t ever want someone to look at me and think I’ve got all my ducks in a row because of what they see on Facebook or wherever. My ducks are all over the place and if there’s any reason I get anything done right – or done at all – in the course of a day, it is because of the grace of God. And the chance to try again tomorrow.

Which children’s book best describes your childhood/life? This is going way back, but I have always loved the story of the Little Red Hen. Self-sufficiency. Hard work. Consistency. It’s everything my parents ever taught me.

What is your favorite home-cooked meal? Any soup, of any kind. With a good crusty loaf of homemade French bread. Maybe baked potato soup. Or chili. Now I’m hungry.

If you could choose anyone, who would you pick as your mentor? When I was in college and a member of the Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow, Pam Smith came and spoke to our group. She’s an Illinois agricultural journalist who was, at the time, with Farm Journal. She had worked for Prairie, once upon a time, and today she’s with DTN/Progressive Farmer. Pam told a story that day of trying to interview someone from her home office, with her two young sons at home, and having to lock herself in a closet while they banged outside, just to get the interview done. I loved the story then because even though I didn’t have any idea what working with children was like, it was such a real thing for her to share. Fast forward a few years, and I was feeding my child a stash of Tootsie Rolls, kept in a desk drawer, so I could finish an interview quietly. Because if they’re chewing, they’re not talking. J {That’s a tip from me to you!} And I thought of Pam. Her story showed you could persevere and get it done, one way or the other. And knowing Pam, she probably took that interview and turned it into an AAEA-award-winning story. Because she’s that kind of good.

If you had the opportunity to get a message across to a large group of people, what would your message be? That farmers make educated decisions based on a variety of sources, with the intention of sustainably producing food for their family and yours. That we are not beholden to anyone in our seed choices or agronomic decisions. That we learn and grow every day. And that producing food and fiber in a sustainable manner has to include profitability, and that does not make us bad people: that makes us people who need to feed our families, too.

What makes you smile? Watching my children work with their Dad. Actually, that might make me cry a little, too. I like a good pair of jeans, too. And maybe a scarf. And soup.

Stay connected to Holly on her blog, the Prairie Farmer Facebook page or through her her personal Twitter and Instagram. Thank you, Holly, for your encouragement to agriculture!

Follow along to all women featured in this series by subscribing to my blog in the right column by email. I’m backlogged with features. This might be 300 Days of Women in Agriculture! For sure starting in December, I will continue with weekly features on amazing women.

In addition to Women In Ag Features this week, I will be sharing a bit about #FoodThanks and hope you will join in the conversation as well as donate a bag of food to your local food pantry. Watch this one minute video to learn more about #FoodThanks.

For those missing out on everyday Pinke Post happenings, connect with me on Facebook and Instagram.

Earlier Women in Agriculture features this month include:

November 17: Celeste Settrini, California’s Couture Cowgirl & Cheerleader for Ag

November 16: Marie Bowers, Oregon Grass Seed Farmer

November 15: Jessie Thompson, The Next Generation of Idaho Ranching

November 14: Emily Zweber, Minnesota Organic Dairy Farmer & AgChat Foundation

November 13: Dr. Janeal Yancey, Mom at the Meat Counter in Arkansas

November 12: Katie Lukens, Not a farm girl to Virginia FFA State Officer to Iowa Ag Education

November 11: Julia Debes, Kansas Farm Girl To Washington D.C. Ag Communicator (with a Deployed Husband)

November 10: Veterinary Technician, Farmer, Rancher & Mom: Meet North Dakota’s Amanda Bader

November 9: An Immigrant for #WomenInAg: Meet Olga Reuvekamp, South Dakota Dairy Farmer

November 8: Texan Melissa Laurent, Long-Eared Humpy Calves Make Her Smile