Speakers

Ray Gaesser

Farmer and Conservation Advocate / Owner, Gaesser Farms / Solutions From The Land

Ray was born on a small farm in southern Indiana, where he grew up to love agriculture. At the age of 25 he married  Elaine  on November 19,1977, two weeks later they moved to southwest  Iowa to begin their life and farm. They have two adult children Jennifer and Christopher. Through the years they grew their farm to more than 5,000 acres, always mindful of the responsibility to “care for the land”.

Today Ray is “semi retired” from the farm operation with responsibility for about 500 acres and helping son Chris as needed. The transition of the farm was a reasoned, planned event that transpired beginning in 2009 with Chris and his wife Shannon who now manage 90% of the entire farm operations.

The farm has a soybean/ corn rotation plus now approximately 300 acres or rye for harvest to be used for cover crop needs on the farm, with additional rye sales to area farmers for their cover crop needs and we are the sole supplier of Rye to nearby Revelton Distillery.

Conserving and enhancing the land has been the focus for 46+ years as terraces,turn areas and waterways were constructed. After several years of testing the farm was transitioned to 100% no-till in 1991 and now nearly 80 % of the fields are protected and enhanced  with cover crops.

Rays volunteer history:

St Patrick's Catholic Church: Finance committee, lector, cantor 

Local economic development 

Iowa Economic Development- Ag advisory

President of Iowa Soybean Association 2006-7 

President of American Soybean Association 2014

Chairman Iowa Conservative Energy Forum 2020 - to present

Board member of Solutions From the Land- to present

Co-chair of Iowa Smart Agriculture -white paper released in 2022

Board member of First National Bank 2011 - to present 

Commissioner Iowa Department of Transportation 2022 - to present

Words to live by:

“The world is changed by your actions - not by your opinions”

Paulo Coelho