KMEG 14 - News, Weather, Sports for Sioux City and Siouxland | Hometown Farmer: Ag Stewardship Center

Hometown Farmer: Ag Stewardship Center

(SIOUX CENTER, IA) As you head north on Highway 75 past Sioux Center, Iowa, you'd probably drive right by the Dordt College Ag Stewardship Center if you didn't know it was there. It's a working farm that's been giving students hands-on experience for more than 30 years.

Michael Gallagher grew up on a farm in Hornick, Iowa, and graduated from Westwood High School in 2009. He's now a junior at Dordt College.

"I wanted to have something to fall back on and agriculture business was the degree that I chose because there's a lot of things you can do with a business degree. There's a lot of things you can do with agriculture," says Michael Gallagher, Dordt College Junior.

He started coming out here freshman year and got his hands dirty right away.

"Yeah you can learn all you want in a textbook but to be able to get that hands-on experience out here on the farm is excellent and the Ag Stewardship Center does just that," says Gallagher.

"I think hands-on experiences are huge," says Mike Schouten, Ag Stewardship Center Manager.

Mike Schouten is the man who works one-on-one with students at the center. He's been managing the farm for 28 years.

"What drives me is working with students. That is the one thing that I really enjoy," says Schouten.

The Agriculture Stewardship Center attracts students from all over the world. Here in the United States, about a third of them call Iowa home but up to 10% come from dairy farms in California.

"We have 135 students in our Ag program. Our students are coming from 20 different states right now, four Canadian provinces and one foreign country," says Schouten.

Mike knows his students are using their degree after college, specializing in fields like veterinary medicine, extension work and research.

"Right now, Ag is a very hot field to be in. There are more jobs out there than what there are Ag grads available to fill those jobs," says Schouten.

And for Michael Gallagher, graduation is only 18 months away but he already knows what the future holds.

"It's hard work and getting to see my dad work hard every year and reap the benefit every harvest is, it's encouraging as well as it motivates me to want to do the same thing someday and I really learned from that and really have a passion to do that," says Gallagher.

Michael had no experience with livestock before college but says his freshman animal science class at the center sparked an interest in potentially having beef cattle on the lot someday.

Reported by Erika Thomas. You can contact her at ethomas@kmeg.com to nominate someone who's Proud to be a Hometown Farmer. The Iowa Broadcast News Association awarded this series 1st place Farm & Agribusiness in 2010.