Meagan Kaiser gets to see the agricultural industry through a variety of lenses. She and her husband, Marc, farm in Carroll County, and she works as a soil scientist at Perry Agricultural Laboratory in Bowling Green, a business her family started 40 years ago.

Also, she serves on the United Soybean Board, and late last year she was elected vice chair of the USB executive committee, working to determine how to best invest soybean checkoff dollars.

For Andrew Howerton, growing up on a farm helped him develop a love for the family business — raising pigs.

“I grew up in it,” he says. “I would describe it as it gets in your blood a little bit.”

In March, the Missouri General Assembly had a week off for spring break. For Kurtis Gregory, that meant an opportunity to catch up at his main job.

“It’s spring break this week, so I’m working on the farm,” he says.

Jeff Reed and his family run a diversified farming operation in Wayne County, in southeast Missouri. He grows row crops and puts up hay, in addition to raising cattle. He has a cow-calf operation and also backgrounds yearlings.

The route leading Reed to this career and that part of the world was not a common one. He grew up in Texas and joined the Marines right out of high school.