Rickelman finds a career in agriculture

Although she grew up on an acreage in rural Grundy County, Sarah Rickelman didn’t take the most traditional path to a career in agriculture: her family didn’t farm or raise livestock. An opportunity arose after her freshman year of college, however, and now she’s not just working in pork production—she’s attending national conferences and sharing her story with others. In conjunction with National Pork Month, The Grundy Register caught up with Rickelman, a sow farm manager and gestation specialist at Degener-Juhl Farms near Hudson, discuss what drew her into the fold and how her experience is resonating with other women in the agricultural field.
           
Rickelman was home educated and attended Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo. After her first year of college, she found herself at a job she wasn’t satisfied with emotionally or financially and heard of an opportunity to work at Degener-Juhl, which finishes 40,000 hogs a year and houses about 1,700 at a time. She came into her job interview without any experience but touted her work ethic and ability to learn on the go as reasons why she deserved a chance. She was hired on the spot in May 2008.
           
She later finished her studies at Iowa State University, earning a degree in Ag Studies with an emphasis in Swine Production in 2011 while continuing to work on the farm back in Grundy County.
           
“It helped that my studies at college were related to hogs, and I could take what I was learning in school, get out of school at three, come to the farm and apply what I’ve learned,” she said. 
 
Read more in this week's Grundy Register.