Year of the Farmer Campaign Launches Feb 12 During Football’s Biggest Game

A coalition of Illinois farm associations are joining together to make 2023 the Year of the Farmer with a statewide campaign that launches February 12 during football’s biggest game.

The message? Ninety-six percent of Illinois farms are family owned and operated.

Research tells us that non-farmers would put this number closer to 50 percent. In fact, others in Illinois think that about 47 percent of farms are family owned, with 53 percent being corporately controlled. That’s a statistic that – though untrue – concerns a lot of our neighbors because they aren’t sure they trust the decisions a corporation would make for Illinois’s exceedingly fertile resources.

However, non-farmers do trust families. When consumers believe that farms are family owned, they are significantly more likely to trust farmers in Illinois.

Enter, the Year of the Farmer campaign. Beginning on February 12, people in Illinois won’t be able to miss this important fact: 96 percent of Illinois farms are family owned and operated.

Want to learn more about the campaign? Check out this behind-the-scenes video featuring families that volunteered to be a part of our campaign and their why,

< Older Post

Newer Post >

IL Corn Leaders Honored with Prestigious National FFA Award

By Lindsay Mitchell • October 31, 2025

Celebrating Illinois Ag Leaders

Girl painting a leaf with brush at a table with paints, leaves, and other art supplies.

Helping Your Special Needs Farm Kid Thrive Through Art

By Emily Graham • October 30, 2025

Farm kids grow up surrounded by creativity—whether it’s building forts from hay bales, sketching tractors, or turning feed sacks into costumes.

Learning to See the Soil Differently: Dan Sanderson’s Conservation Journey (Part 1)

By Tara Desmond • October 30, 2025

When northern Illinois farmer Dan Sanderson started farming in the 1980s, cover crops weren’t exactly mainstream. Government set-aside programs required planting something like oats, but what stuck with Dan wasn’t the paperwork. It was the difference he noticed in those acres the next year—healthier plants and stronger soils. Decades later, that observation led him down a lifelong road of conservation and soil health improvement. In this episode of IL Corn TV, Dan joins IL Corn board member Shane Gray to talk about his path toward regenerative farming, what he learned at a 2017 Soil Health Academy that changed everything, and why he now treats soil as a living system, not something to manipulate. Dan’s story is one every farmer can relate to—trial and error, lessons learned the hard way, and realizing that “good soil” is about more than yield. 🎥 Watch Part 1 now and catch Part 2 soon, where Dan dives deeper into how he’s reducing inputs, improving soil function, and still keeping his yields strong.