Laura Cunningham

Laura Cunningham
Degree: 
Agricultural Business
Year Graduated: 
2010

Laura Cunningham, a farmer near Nora Springs and marketing manager for Latham Hi-Tech Seeds, has been honored with a 2020 Iowa Farm Bureau Young Farmer Leadership Award.

Scope over scale

For Laura Cunningham, life on the farm can be a blur of activity as she and her husband, Aaron, work to scale up their operation near Nora Springs. Along with working full time as marketing manager for Latham Hi-Tech Seeds, Cunningham strives to expand the farm’s cow-calf herd and build their direct-to-consumer beef business, called SkyView Beef. 

“We strategically pick farm enterprises to add diversification,” Cunningham said. It was improved margins that attracted Cunningham to launch SkyView Beef. “I observed that for the farmer, margin is lost to the packer-retailer exchange. By ver­tically integrating our cow/calf and feedlot enterprises and focusing on quality, we’ve been able to recapture margin with a focus on scope over scale,” Cunningham said.

The young farmer, who is expecting the couple’s first child this fall, works to establish direct connections with consumers through the retail beef business. 

She also has been a leader of the Floyd County Farm Bureau efforts to engage the community through “Farm to Fork” dinners. 

“We want to put a face on farming and answer questions about agriculture for people in our community, and the best way to do that is over good food," she said.

Agricultural education is an­­oth­­er passion for Cunningham. She works with others in her community to establish an agricultural education program and FFA in their local school district, Central Springs.

Cunningham strongly believes that ag education can be an engine for rural vitality because it shows young people there are career options in rural communities. 

“About 30% of our area’s work­­force is involved in ag,” she noted. “But if young people don’t have a connection to ag through school, they don’t always see op­­portunities here at home and believe relocating is needed to find a fulfilling career. We want to change that.”

By Dirck Steimel, Reprinted with permission from the Iowa Farm Bureau Spokesman

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