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2025 Michigan Master Farmers lead by example
Soil health and service are central to this year’s Michigan Master Farmer award winners.
Jim and Laurie Isley have been conservation advocates for more than 45 years while growing corn and soybeans farm in Lenawee County. Laurie tells Brownfield, “We have the privilege to be involved in agriculture, but we have a responsibility to give back to it as well.”
Fourth-generation Clinton County crop farmer Scott Miller has been instrumental in the creation of Michigan’s ethanol industry.
“We put in a lot of time, but proud of that effort, and we had five, now we have four (plants),” he shares. “We’re grinding a lot of corn because of that.”
Lee and Marilyn Thelen of Clinton County raise corn, soybeans, wheat, and steers. Lee credits their farm’s survival to ingenuity and keeping an open mind.
“Either you like farming or you don’t,” he says. “If you don’t like it, don’t do it. If you love it, there’s really a lot of bad days in a row, and there’ll be some good days, and there’ll be some great days. You just gotta like it.”
All three winners were honored for their farm management, innovation, conservation, leadership, and community involvement at this week’s Great Lakes Crop Summit.
The awards are presented by the Michigan Farmer Magazine and sponsored by Brownfield Ag News, GreenStone Farm Credit Services, Michigan Agricultural Commodities, the Corn Marketing Program of Michigan, Michigan Soybean Committee, Michigan Wheat Program, and Wilbur-Ellis.
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