He discloses that the farms made money last year, adding, “We’ll see what happens in 2021-22.” Finding a voice He thought the corn crop was “looking OK - better than the beans” as the crops matured. He calls forward contracting a good starting point and believes firmly in crop insurance. “As the crop matures, I do a little more, or if there is a bump in the market, I’ll do a little more,” he notes. Kelleher soil samples every four years, fertilizes in response and forward-contracts 25% of the crop. “The networking is as important as the foundation.”īoth serve him well as a farmer, farm manager and seed representative for Wyffels Hybrids of Whitewater. “It was a great foundation, and I’m always adding to it,” he says. “I’ve got all the land grant documents,” he adds.Ĭome forward about 159 years that’s when Kelleher graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville with a bachelor’s degree in ag business, and soil and crop science. He points out with pride that next year, his farm will be in the family 180 years, since June 1842. Kelleher also works his own acreage - a farm he bought from his grandparents 10 years ago after farming alongside the much larger Reeb Farms.
I consider them second parents, employers and best friends,” he says. He says he lucked out with the family he works for. My strong wife and two daughters are doing a great job helping me recover.”įARM FAMILY: Casey and Ashley Kelleher, with daughters Natalie, 11, (left) and Kya, 13, find time for fun on the farm. The outreach of everyone has been unbelievable. While recovering, he says, “I feel extremely blessed to have gotten through this with only the bruises and broken ankle bones.
Kelleher endured a trip to a Janesville hospital and then Flight for Life to University Hospital in Madison. “I got really bruised up, a bunch of staples in my head, and I broke three bones at my ankle,” he explains. The tractor rolled back down the ramp and over him. He says he was loading a tractor to pull a homecoming float in Milton, Wis., where his wife, Ashley, is an elementary school teacher. Kelleher is depending more on the employees following a recent farm accident. He’s the farm manager for Reeb Farms Inc., working with three full-time and two or three part-time employees, depending on the season. “Some we rotate every year on others, we plant several years of corn,” Kelleher says. He rotates back and forth, following corn with corn depending on the area. Kelleher raises two-thirds corn and one-third soybeans on the 3,500 acres, following conventional tillage practices on a broad range of soil types, from light and sandy to peat and heavier black earth. Last year, most went to the Illinois River markets, where his soybean production goes as well. He’s an ethanol backer, calling it “good and clean - we have to keep fighting for it.” All his crop used to go into ethanol. Kelleher says he’s opinionated “to an extent.” Not outspoken, “but I will speak up.” Grains Council Asia Advisory Team.īoth farmer and farm manager, he raises corn and soybeans on 3,500 acres of his own and the farm he manages in the Whitewater, Wis., area. He is vice president of the Wisconsin Corn Foundation and recently was appointed to the U.S. He was on the board and is a former president of the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association, and chairs its political action committee.
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