By Bill Spiegel, Byline Editor
Some of Adrienne Held’s favorite memories as a little girl are of the weekends and summers she spent at her grandparent’s place, helping them tend to their strawberry patch. Those wide open spaces and the purposeful labor of growing, weeding and picking made an impression on young Adrienne.
“It was my favorite place to go, and I was more likely to be outside than in,” she recalls. “I was kind of my grandpa’s shadow.”
Adrienne grew up in Hampshire, a more urban area of Illinois. She joined FFA her junior year in high school, and that’s when the idea of a career path in agriculture took flight. “I knew that’s where I wanted to be,” she says.
Adrienne earned a bachelor’s degree in Crop Science at the University of Illinois, followed by a Master’s in the same at Michigan State University. She worked as an Extension Educator at Purdue when she married her husband, Nick.
After her first daughter was born, she became a technical writer at Bayer Crop Science, where for 13 years, she was on a team that created technical bulletins, newsletters and research reports. During that time, Held worked from the farm she and Nick operate near Santa Claus, Indiana. On a farm established in 1913, they produce corn, soybeans and have 50 registered Angus cows, plus a menagerie of 4-H animals for the couple’s daughters, ages 9 and 13.
And, with the support of Nick’s family, they began their own strawberry patch, called Holly Berry Farm.
“It’s about one acre worth of strawberries, which is plenty!” she says. The farm also has asparagus, freezer beef, pumpkins and more.
When Successful Farming sought an Executive Editor, Agronomy in 2023, Adrienne applied.
“I grew up reading the magazine, and I thought it would be a lot of fun. It’s worked out and I really enjoy it. It allows my extrovert side to thrive, getting to talk to people. And agriculture is a passion, so it works out really nicely that way,” she says.
With a solid background in crop science, Adrienne enjoys sharing technologies and insights that can help farmers.
“We’re not here to tell them what to do, but to share with them what’s out there. The idea that an article of mine could spur some conversation brings me a lot of joy and satisfaction,” she says.
As a new entrant into the ag media world, she also is new to the ACN. She enjoys the Byline, and looks forward to participation in professional improvement events like ACN Webinars.
“And I’m excited about attending Ag Media Summit and have the opportunity to get to know other faces in the ag journalism world,” she says. “It’s a new place for me, so I’m excited to get my feet wet and make new friends.”