SPIRIT LAKE, Iowa | Work as Iowa Secretary of Agriculture takes Bill Northey far and wide from his farm two miles east of Spirit Lake.
He could be in Keokuk, Iowa, one day meeting with grain farmers; in Washington, D.C., the next visiting with members of the U.S. Senate. By week's end, he might be stepping on a plane destined for China, one of Iowa's biggest and most important trade partners.
On July 14, Northey spoke while traveling to a meeting in Iowa. He was pleased to be heading home for the 80th birthday of his mother, Margaret Northey.
"I've not seen my beans since I planted them," said Northey, 56. "The corn was only six inches tall when I last saw it. I'm told they both look pretty good."
Keep in mind that Iowa's Secretary of Agriculture isn't complaining about the travel required to promote Iowa products or to ensure Iowa farmers who now compete on the global level. Northey enjoys it and feels it must be done for him to adequately represent the interests of those gorwing corn, soybeans, beef, pork and more across Iowa.
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"I love getting out," said Northey, who was raised two miles east of the Dickinson County seat. "We were with dairy farmers a few weeks ago and saw what they're doing with cover crops."
Northey put cover crops on his farm two years ago. That fall, Northwest Iowa was dry and he didn't get much cover to grow.
"I did it again last fall and we had a wet fall," he said. "By this spring, we had knee-high rye that we sprayed. We planted soybeans in there and we have a great stand. I like cover crops as a tool here and I think I'll keep growing them."
Growing. It's what Bill Northey has known since joining his grandfather, Sid Northey, on the farm not long after his graduation from Iowa State University in 1981.
"My grandpa came to me between my junior and senior year in college and said that he was maybe interested in slowing down," Northey said. "He wondered if I might be interested in coming back."
Bill Northey came back to the farm, rented the ground from his 81-year-old grandfather and bought his equipment over a 10-year period, saving interest costs through an agreement that allowed young Bill to get his feet on the ground.
"The 1980s were tough," he said. "I watched some friends who didn't make it. It caused me to be pretty conservative."
Northey ran for a position on the state board serving the Iowa Corn Growers Association in the mid-1980s. He served a trio of three-year terms and benefited from the expertise of veteran farmers. The organization plowed through a range of ethanol issues that helped set the stage for a new frontier in Iowa's economy.
"The Groundwater Protection Act was also something the organization cared about and I became engaged in it," he said. "It was a really good experience."
All the while, Northey farrowed some pigs and finished just a few cattle on a little pasture area. He and his wife, Cindy, also raised three daughters.
"I expanded a little bit," he said. "Grandpa and I bought a farm together. I spent my time doing (Corn Growers) Association stuff. I was away to that and tried to get home to tend to business."
Northey served as the state president for the Iowa Corn Growers in the early 1990s. He ascended to the national presidency for the group in 1995-96 and served as chairman in 1996-97.
In 2006, he entered the political arena and found himself on the ballot in Dickinson County, not far from the name of his father, Wayne Northey, a cattleman from Spirit Lake.
"Dad was a county supervisor for 22 years, until five years ago," the son said. "His last term was in 2006; he was on the same ballot as I was."
Bill Northey, a Republican, won election that year to be Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, a post he's held under Govs. Chet Culver, a Democrat, and Terry Branstad, a Republican.
During his tenure, Northey has pledged to travel to each of Iowa's 99 counties to hear from Iowans and their stake in the state's biggest business. Much of that time recently has been focused on helping poultry growers get back on their feet in the wake of the avian flu outbreak, Iowa's worst animal health emergency, a tragic turn of events that resulted in the death and euthanization of more than 33 million commercial layers, pullets and turkeys, including nearly 27 million egg-producing chickens.
"Over time, more issues in agriculture have become higher profile," he said.
Among the biggest unknown variables is how the flu outbreak, now seemingly contained in the heat of the summer, will act once migratory movement returns as temperatures cool come fall.
Northey will work with the United States Department of Agriculture and state leaders to help protect farmers and the food source with which they've been entrusted.
And only then will Northey return to his corn, soybeans and cover crops. He'll make the time to climb in the combine, just as he has done each year since he joined his late Grandpa Sid, back in 1981.
While on the road, Iowa's Secretary of Agriculture, the state's No. 2-ranked farmer (politically, at least, and trailing only Sen. Chuck Grassley) makes two things clear: "I still plant," he said. "And I still harvest."
