As Indiana farmers are planting their crops this spring, they are relying on skills they honed at a very early age as members of the 4-H program. Being involved in production agriculture today requires perseverance, innovation and self-confidence. For many farm families, those qualities were developed as members of 4-H.

Sonny Beck, president of Beck’s Hybrids, says 4-H provided him and many of his farmer customers with the opportunity to develop the traits needed to be successful in agriculture. “It teaches perseverance and commitment to finishing a project that you started. 4-H teaches you to finish a project, and that is a valuable lesson,” he says.

Beck says the innovation he’s brought to his business started in 4-H, “When I was 14 years old, I was helping my mother defeather chickens, and I thought, ‘There has got to be a better way to do this.’”

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