By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and two U.S. senators enter the room. That sounds like a description of a Washington, D.C. hearing room, but in this case, it refers to what happened recently in the stone barn of a leading farm family in rural Kansas.

Last week we learned about longtime agricultural leaders Jeanne and Harold Mertz of River Creek Farms near Manhattan. Today, River Creek Farms is owned by two of their sons, Joe and Bob, and their wives Kim and Mary, respectively. The Mertz farm recently hosted the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture for a meeting with Kansas farm leaders.

As the name River Creek Farm suggests, their farm ground is situated near a river. That means it is good fertile bottomland with water nearby, but it also can be risky during flooding. During the 1951 flood, floodwaters devastated downtown Manhattan and struck the Mertz farm and others. Jeanne and her one-month-old baby son Joe were evacuated from the farm by boat.

After the floodwaters receded, the Mertzes returned to the farm. They built a diversified crop and livestock operation, situated between the rural communities of Zeandale and Wabaunsee, population 517 people. Now, that’s rural.

Harold and Jeanne raised five children: Joe, Tom, Bob, Jon, and sister Jane. Tom is CEO and owner of a company in Gardner. Jon works at the Flint Hills Discovery Center in Manhattan, and Jane Mertz Garcia is a faculty member at K-State.

Joe came back to the farm after graduating from K-State in agriculture and serving on the livestock judging team. His judging experience and studies in the animal sciences department at K-State led him to suggest to his father that they try something new: He suggested that he would artificially inseminate their Polled Hereford cows with semen from Simmental bulls. His parents agreed and the resulting hybrid vigor was excellent.
Meanwhile, Joe met and married Kim Newell. His parents moved to a neighboring house, so Joe and Kim began their married life in the same house that Joe’s father and grandfather had begun their married lives. Joe and Kim went on to raise four kids on the farm: Asher, Lincoln, Malia and Abram.

In 1985, the Mertzs began offering purebred Simmental bulls for sale by private treaty. They later branched into Simmental-Angus cross bulls and offer a bull sale annually.

Joe’s younger brother Bob also went to K-State and competed on the livestock judging team. After graduation, Bob went to work for the National Livestock and Meat Board in Chicago for six years. Here he met a young lady named Mary. They married and also returned to the farm. Bob and Mary had two children, Lisa and David. Harold and Jeanne were proud that all six of their grandchildren got undergrad and/or post-graduate degrees from K-State.

Today, Joe manages the livestock while Bob has responsibility for the crops. River Creek Farms includes 3,600 acres of crop production which Bob has advanced technologically and sustainably. The Mertzs also have what has been described as one of the premier Simmental and SimAngus herds in the country. As the farm website says: “Our guiding principles throughout have remained the same: calving ease and disposition, a sincere focus on end-product value and harnessing the benefits of hybrid vigor. These cornerstones remain in place to this day and characterize every bull we sell, even if much has changed over the past 125 years.”

In 2018, Senator Pat Roberts, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee, was looking for a farm to host the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture for a meeting with Kansas farm leaders. The location they chose was River Creek Farms, owned by the Mertz family.

It’s time to leave this meeting of the USDA Secretary and the senators, held on a family farm in a rural valley near Manhattan, Kansas. We commend Joe and Kim and Bob and Mary Mertz and their families for making a difference in Kansas agriculture.

And there’s more. Another generation of the Mertz family is making its mark in the livestock industry in another innovative way. We’ll learn about that next week.

Returning from the summer meeting for presidents of state colleges and universities, I am renewed and reaffirmed in my faith in the mission and effectiveness of Fort Hays State University. We provide accessible, quality education to Kansas, the nation and the world through an innovative community of teacher-scholars and professionals who develop engaged global citizen-leaders.

I am particularly proud of our accessibility; our 17 consecutive years of growth; and the numerous awards, rankings, accreditations and recognitions driven by dedicated and talented faculty – indicative of a high quality education.

FHSU is not, and has never been, about being average. Our grit, innovation, and caring nature have served us well. These characteristics form the essence of our institutional DNA. We aim higher and work harder – especially when it comes to our students. Most importantly, we recognize that behind every enrollment, retention, and graduation statistic is a student, a real person to whom we have an obligation to guide and encourage.

This is why we continue to invest in award-winning programs such as the Hispanic College Institute; work hard to be a vibrant, forward-thinking partner with our community and technical colleges through proactive and creative articulation agreements; “meet students where they are” by providing educational opportunities in multiple formats such as engaging distance learning and community-based education whereby we send faculty to several sites throughout Western Kansas and the world; offer high-achieving high school students the unique opportunity to live on campus, engage in research with Ph.D. faculty, and enroll in 60 credit hours of college study all while completing their junior and senior year of high school; and provide multiple pathways for student engagement from living and learning communities to internships to study abroad opportunities.

We also recognize that we still have work to do in taking more students all the way to the finish line. Not every student who leaves FHSU early is a stop out, however. Some may be enrolled in our pre-engineering program specifically designed for transfer to engineering schools around the country. Others may enroll with a specific goal to complete general education requirements and then transfer to a higher cost college with different majors as a cost saving strategy. But there are students who are not graduating and for whom we need to find more effective ways of helping. That is why we continue to adopt new strategies and evaluate and refine current practices. Our faculty and staff devote an enormous amount of time and energy to getting better at supporting our students.

At FHSU, we have the courage to be introspective and innovative. Universities are called to think deeply and to differentiate between where students fail and where the university fails students – to adopt an “it’s on us” posture rather than simply blame students for not putting forth the effort to succeed. Researcher Robert Pace has long demonstrated that what the institution does can profoundly shape student effort and positively impact success. Even newer research by Robert Putnam indicates that students who are not as well prepared for college often do not lack in intelligence but in savvy. Our outreach and support of students is more critical than we sometimes realize. This is why our new Center for Student Success, which will become a reality in 2021 thanks in part to the generosity of Richard and the late Delores Fischli, will be a particularly exciting addition to our campus.

New research from Gallup indicates that hope is critical to college student success. This makes sense when you think about it. Ever tried to lose weight and got negative feedback from the scale? Motivated to eat more fruits and vegetables? Feel like weighing in the next day? Discouragement steals hope. Encouragement fuels hope, which results in success. I know that when my personal trainer gives me information, shows me what to do, monitors my progress, and continues to encourage me, I am hopeful, focused, excited, and successful. Each week I get stronger and can do more. My trainer reminds me not of what I cannot yet do but of the progress I have made and how much closer I am to accomplishing my fitness goals.

The conference reminded me of how important it is to tell our students every day how great they are, to encourage their hopes and dreams, to instill in them the importance of perseverance, to refuse to accept failure, and to love them to success. After all, this is how we create world class athletes, and it is how we should be creating world class students.

And the best news – this relentless focus on hope and student support – is a virtue alive and well at FHSU. I am renewed and brimming with optimism as August quickly approaches and brings with it the excitement of a new academic year.