{"id":5021,"date":"2015-05-14T08:29:03","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T12:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/?p=5021"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:55:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T16:55:15","slug":"meet-brent-bible-state-trooper-turned-farmer-and-mentor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2015\/05\/14\/meet-brent-bible-state-trooper-turned-farmer-and-mentor\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Brent Bible, state trooper turned farmer and mentor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BrentBible\"<\/a>A new Purdue University study<\/a> released this week found that agriculture will create nearly 60,000 jobs each year for the next five years. But to meet this growing demand, more students will need to graduate with agricultural degrees. And as the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a recent interview<\/a>, the farming sector must do more to work with students and the educational system as a whole.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where growers like Brent Bible come into play.\u00a0 Brent is inspiring the next generation of farmers, scientists, researchers, and agronomists through his work with Purdue students who help him operate his 3,000-acre grain farm in Indiana. He\u2019s also promoting soil health, nutrient efficiency, and sustainable agriculture through changes in on-farm practices.<\/p>\n

I asked Brent, a former Indiana state police officer, about his transition to the agricultural world, his work with the Soil Health Partnership<\/a>, and what gets him out of bed every morning.<\/p>\n

How did you get involved in farming after a career in law enforcement? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I grew up on a farm, but back then it was too small to be a livelihood for my family. Agriculture wasn’t even in the picture when I went to school at Purdue<\/a> and then went onto a career in law enforcement.\u00a0 But given my roots, I always had one foot in the water on farming.<\/p>\n

I later teamed up with a friend, now my fellow co-owner, and we were able to run a small farm operation that allowed us to have a little bit of extra income. We like to think that by being responsible land stewards, we later got noticed by larger property owners that leased us additional land. So over time we were able to expand the size of our farm from 600 to nearly 3,000 acres.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0970<\/a>
From left to right: Brandon Moseley, Purdue students Ethan Engelhardt and Corey Beck, and Brent Bible.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How do you work with Purdue students? <\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re fortunate to live close to Purdue, which has a huge agricultural program. Students from the university\u00a0help us plant, harvest, and monitor crops \u2013 and in turn they\u2019re learning about the world of farming.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, farming is a job and a livelihood, but I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t have a passion for it. There are many hard days that accompany this field, but I\u2019m constantly challenging the students to do something that they would do for free. In other words, if you find passion in your career, you will be successful in life. That makes me excited to get to work each morning.
\n
\nCan other growers take advantage of university resources? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I was a member of Purdue\u2019s Farmhouse Fraternity<\/a> which is still a great resource for me today. Many growers don\u2019t have this connection, but anyone within reach of a land grant university or other agriculture-related university can reach out and make a connection. You never know what resources exist until you ask\u2013 and students are an incredibly engaged and passionate workforce.<\/p>\n

How do your state trooper skills translate to the farm? <\/strong><\/p>\n

You would think that farming means you\u2019re on a tractor by yourself and that you\u2019re alone a lot of the time \u2013 but I\u2019ve learned that isn\u2019t the case. People skills and relationships were key in law enforcement, and it\u2019s the same in agriculture.<\/p>\n

I used to think that production agriculture was machine-oriented system, but it\u2019s really a people-driven environment. People become your greatest resource. You can\u2019t get equipment fixed without the right people, and I\u2019m constantly asking agronomists and crop advisors for advice on products and technologies.<\/p>\n

\"4.1.1\"<\/a>
Some of Brent Bible’s fields are used to grow popcorn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I hear my movie popcorn may come from your farm? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe a few kernels! Of our 3,000 acres, two-thirds is corn and one-third is soybeans. Our operation is somewhat unique because we mostly grow seed corn and beans for Beck\u2019s Hybrids<\/a>. We grow a little bit of wheat as a rotational crop, and the rest of the fields are comprised of food-grade waxy corn, and a field or two of popcorn\u2013 which yes, is sold to ConAgra to make Orville Redenbacher popcorn.<\/p>\n

How have you changed nutrient management practices in your operation? <\/strong><\/p>\n

We used to apply a standard amount of nutrients per acre. But we have evolved over time \u2013 we now take soil samples every two acres and use variable rate technology to get data about inputs. We aggregate the data on a field by field basis and can now fine tune our nutrient application so that the majority of the time, we\u2019re saving money and increasing yields. We\u2019re no longer just applying a blind amount of fertilizer \u2013 we\u2019re being much more precise and applying only what is needed.<\/p>\n

What other soil health practices have you embraced? <\/strong><\/p>\n

About half or two-thirds of our acres are no-till or minimum till depending on crop type and conditions each year. We made this change in part because of great advice from others who tried these practices but also because no-till just makes sense for some layouts and topographies. Through my work with the Soil Health Partnership<\/a> (SHP), I\u2019ve also been able to learn from others who have used cover crops and realized the benefits.<\/p>\n

We are economically driven to do what will give you the best yield \u2013 no-till and cover crops are part of that equation. This year we had 350 acres of cover crops \u2013 we would not have been that aggressive if it wasn\u2019t for our work with the SHP, which helped us develop confidence to try new methods.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new Purdue University study released this week found that agriculture will create nearly 60,000 jobs each year for the next five years. But to meet this growing demand, more students will need to graduate with agricultural degrees. And as the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a recent interview, the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45788,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[120554],"tags":[234,42756,63672,63845,58953,71637,71851,71852,61056,71742],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","tag-agriculture-tag","tag-farmers","tag-farms","tag-food-production","tag-nitrogen","tag-nutrient-efficiency","tag-purdue","tag-purdue-university","tag-soil-health","tag-soil-health-partnership"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45788"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15576,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5021\/revisions\/15576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5021"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}