By Jim Patrico, Freelancer
What do you get when you mix a “people person,” a “research nerd” and someone who “loves to read and write” all into the same personality? In this scenario you get award winning ag journalist and AAEA board member Jill Loehr.
Jill Loehr
This wasn’t necessarily the career path she had in mind. Loehr, who spent her early on a dairy farm, once thought she wanted to be a lobbyist for agriculture. She saw her future self pounding the marble halls on Capitol Hill to explain farming to congressmen and senators. With that in mind, she interned one summer for Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. But after a few months in Washington, “I knew I did not want to work in D.C.,” Loehr now says with a laugh.
Fortunately, Loehr had alternatives. She carried dual majors at Iowa State University in Journalism and Mass Communications plus Public Service and Administration in Agriculture. “I always loved writing,” she says, which meant that a career in journalism was winner, not a consolation prize.
With some excitement and trepidation, she started her first job after graduating in 1999 with marketing communications agency Rhea+Kaiser. “I’ll never forget my parents driving with me to this scary, scary place called Chicagoland,” she says. “I didn’t know a soul in Chicago. But the nice part is Rhea+Kaiser is such an ag oriented agency.”
The job also indirectly led her to her husband Mike. They now have twin 10-year-old daughters, Hannah and Emma.
In 2010 the family moved to Geneseo, Illinois, and Loehr’s new position with Wyffels Hybrids. Five years later, she jumped the fence from marketing, public relations and corporate communications to editorial. She is now an associate editor for The Prairie Farmer.
Loehr and Prairie Farmer Editor Holly Spangler divide reporting duties. Each does whatever falls into her geographic area plus any stories that cross over. Although “Agronomy is in my wheelhouse,” Loehr says, she winds up writing about everything. That includes a recent story on how to bury a dead cow.
“I had to do a lot of reading on animal disposal laws in Illinois. I do nerd out on the research end of things,” she admits.
But some research is more fun than others. “My favorite stories are the Master Farmer stories,” Loehr says. “I just love getting to know the families. For a day or two, they let me into their lives.”
Prairie Farmer annually honors Master Farmers for their work on the farm and in their communities. The hardest part of those stories is “trying to sum up someone’s life in 800 or so words, “Loehr says.
It is a complement to Loehr’s people skills that her Master Farmer families often stay in touch with her. Through texts and emails long after the awards ceremonies and magazine articles, “They keep me updated on what’s going on,” Loehr says.
That’s what something else that happens when you mix loves for people, research and writing: You make lasting connections.
Loehr joined the AAEA board in 2017. She says she likes being in a leadership role that helps shape an organization to which she has belonged for nine years. “I have always enjoyed Ag Media Summit,” Loehr says. “I always take something away from the breakout sessions.”