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"Throughout my Iowa State University experience, I firmly believe that the Agronomy department, curriculum structure, and
extracurricular opportunities provided the best opportunity of any of the programs at ISU to develop both personally and professionally."
"I will never forget the supplemental motivations, support, and passion that I needed to succeed from the
professors, teaching assistants, and friends from my Agronomy learning team. I know your experience at Iowa State as an Agronomy student
will provide you with same opportunities to 'grow' as I had."
My name is Bart Boehm. I am a proud 2002 graduate of Iowa State University’s Department of Agronomy. I was born and raised on a small
row-crop and cow-calf farm around Greenfield, Iowa. My parents, Kurt and Rhonda, are still actively farming and managing our family farm
in Southwest Iowa. In addition, my siblings, Jessie and Wade, and I actively participate in the farm operations as our schedules permit.
As my passion has always been agriculture with a definite long-term plan to farm, I enrolled in ISU after graduating from Nodaway Valley
High School in 1998. During my campus visit in May, a personal meeting with Dr. Mullen and a tour of the Agronomy department to meet the
Agronomy staff provided me with the realization that the Department of Agronomy was my "home." The enthusiasm and personal support that I
felt from Dr. Mullen and the Agronomy teaching staff combined with the diversity of career opportunities that Agronomy offered to me made
my decision a "no-brainer" that day. Throughout my Iowa State University experience, I firmly believe that the College of Agriculture staff,
curriculum structure, and extracurricular opportunities provided the best opportunity of any of the colleges at ISU to develop both
personally and professionally.
During my Agronomy experience, I was and still am very interested in forage crops and their nutritional impacts on animal performance.
My class work and work-study experiences emphasized forage, animal nutrition, and genetics/plant breeding classes. Upon graduation in 2002,
I accepted a position with Pioneer Hi-Bred, International, as a management assistant trainee at the Constantine, MI, seed corn production
plant. During my two years at the Constantine production plant, the "book learning" from ISU were put into action: assisting with the
management of planting, detasseling, harvesting, and conditioning activities at our plant. Along the way, my Pioneer experience introduced
me to the business aspects of agriculture. To gain a different perspective of the exciting and developing opportunities for value-added
agriculture, I joined Diageo North America in January 2004 as an ingredient buyer. Diageo is the largest spirits company in the world with
brands such as Smirnoff, Crown Royal, Captain Morgan, and Johnnie Walker. I currently buy whiskey, whiskey barrels, and grain neutral
spirits (190 proof) for our US and Canada plants. As my ingredients' pricing is based upon supply and demand dynamics that ultimately
determine commodity prices, my agronomic knowledge gives me a unique perspective as to how the environmental conditions translate into
financial risks and opportunities for my company.
My experiences at ISU and the Department of Agronomy have taught me a great deal about life. Dr. Kleibenstein shared a quote with my
Farm Business Management class on my last day as a graduating senior that I will never forget: "People will forget what you said.
People will forget what you did. But, they will never forget how you made them feel." Many lose sight of this motto in today’s highly
competitive work environments. However, the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University exemplified this over my four years as an
undergraduate. I will never forget the supplemental motivation, support, and passion that I needed to succeed from the professors,
teaching assistants, and friends from my Agronomy learning team. I know your experiences at Iowa State as a Department of Agronomy
student will provide you with same opportunities to "grow" as I had.
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