Matthew Burt, pictured, a sixth-generation farmer on his family’s land north of Marshalltown, was recently selected as one of three winners of the Iowa Farm Bureau’s Young Farmer Leadership award. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE IOWA FARM BUREAU

Guided in part by the words of one of America’s most eloquent speakers, Matthew Burt has embraced working on the family farm where he grew up.

Burt was one of three Iowa farmers selected as winners of the Iowa Farm Bureau’s Young Farmer Leadership award, announced last month.

The award, created in honor of former Iowa Farm Bureau President Bob Joslin, recognizes farmers from ages 18 to 35 who contribute and show leadership within the communities where they live and the agriculture profession.

Burt is a sixth-generation farmer working on the family farm in Marshall County where he grows corn and soybeans and raises hogs and cattle, alongside his parents, his wife, Karen, and their one-year-old daughter, Rachel.

Burt is also a graduate of the Ag Leaders Institute and the current Marshall County Farm Bureau President.

However, his plan after studying at Iowa State was to get away from the family farm for a few years and find employment elsewhere before returning.

On the night of the 2013 Super Bowl, however, there was perhaps a bit of divine intervention.

The Dodge Ram commercial that featured Paul Harvey’s narration of his “So God Made A Farmer” speech struck a chord with Burt, who hadn’t previously heard Harvey’s speech, which was initially published in a syndicated column in 1986.

“After I saw that, I thought about how it was Sunday night, and I’d wake up tomorrow and leave the farm to go travel somewhere two hours away for a different job,” Burt said. “I realized that I needed to be back home on the farm, working with my dad.”

Burt’s influence on agriculture goes beyond the family farm.

As the county president, he delivers presentations to students at area schools, like at a recent career day for GMG.

“I think it’s surprising more and more kids are involved in agriculture, often without realizing it,” Burt said, citing gardening and taking care of animals as an entryway to agriculture. “It’s all about putting a face to what is being done on the farm. There’s a lot of different hats you can wear as a farmer, too. You can be good at working with tractors or good with finance.”

As part of the award, each winner is given a $2,000 grant to designate to a non-profit of their choice. Burt opted to contribute his grant toward the Seeds of Hope Foundation, an organization that assists young farm families struggling with long-term, life-threatening illnesses.

Burt met the foundation’s organizer, Justine Stevenson, while they were at Iowa State, and got to know her and her late husband, Chasen — whom the foundation is dedicated to — through the Farm Bureau’s young farmer events.

Chasen passed away in November 2018 after battling kidney cancer and Burt had previously raised funds for Chasen and his family through a “Ride for Chasen Stevenson” bicycle-riding fundraiser.

“The foundation does a great job with a lot of those hidden costs that go with medical expenses,” Burt said. “Insurance, lost wages, hotels, travel expenses, it adds up.”

On that subject, Burt sees increasing costs as one of the mounting challenges that farmers face today, whether it’s inputs or interest rates on operating loans.

Beyond that, farming draws on the wait for that next much-needed rain.

“All farmers are eternal optimists hoping for that next rain,” Burt said. “We plant corn and soybeans in the dry dirt hoping the good lord will give us rain and good weather.”

Burt was also lauded for his conservation efforts, including grassed waterways, Conservation Reserve Program acres and the use of technology to apply precise fertilizer amounts.

“It’s your own business and you can improve it however you want,” Burt said. “You may get a record crop one year and then you’re looking to next year on how you can improve it. That’s what farming’s all about, just trying to get better every year, every day.”

It’s not all profits though — it’s about tradition, and family.

“There’s sacrifices you make in a busy season, … some days it’s a lot of weight being a sixth-generation farmer,” Burt said. “But I can say that I can eat lunch with my family every day, have dinner with my family every night, and don’t have to travel unless I want to. … And you wake up every morning knowing you’re working with family and doing something your family has been doing for over 150 years.”