Casey Denk gained her passion for feeding the world while helping her parents tend to their first-generation beef farm. Her parents’ eagerness for building the land turned into a sustainable agricultural lifestyle that many consider the future of agriculture.
With climate change, environmental damage, industrialization and other factors impacting agricultural productivity, sustainability practices are needed now more than ever.
The 95th National FFA Convention and Expo featured a breakfast on Thursday, Oct. 27, intended to unite agriculturists across the nation in new sustainability reforms. Denk moderated the panel of ag leaders who discussed these efforts.
Erin Fitzgerald, CEO of U.S Farmers and Ranchers in Action (USFRA), said, “A decade of action [against this problem] starts with a decade of agriculture. Farmers are telling the world that they are taking action now through sustainable practices.”
Denk, now 21 years old, and her family are inspiring leaders by doing just that.
The Denk farm, located in Mondovi, Wis., utilizes sustainable practices while finishing holstein and beef market steers and heifers and raising beef cow-calf pairs.
Feeding the cattle corn from the farm not only saves money, but it also replenishes minerals into the soil. Waterways prevent erosion and dams retain water for the cattle. Solar power energizes fences that confine the cattle.
These practices not only help the environment, but also the Denk’s finances.
“When we bought the land, it wasn’t in the best of shape, so we’ve been working towards getting our soil and our land back up to its ideal conditions because the more we put into it the more we’ll get back from it too,” Denk says.
Denk’s appreciation for the agriculture industry inspires her desire to implement sustainable practices in every aspect of her future. These practices are even the center of her Beef Production supervised agricultural experience (SAE).
Seeing Denk’s sustainability initiatives alongside other FFA sponsors’ push for more progressive agricultural practices influenced the National FFA Organization to sign onto the USFRA “Decade of Agriculture” movement that pushes for more support and action of sustainable practices.
