Welcome to Successful Farming. We are the trustworthy authority for families who make farming and ranching their business. Successful Farming began in 1902 as a publication built on service journalism to help American farmers. Today, our brand includes an award-winning magazine reaching 393,000 farmers and ranchers. We focus primarily on corn, soybean, wheat, and livestock producers across the United States. Our website, Agriculture.com, launched in 1995, was among the first serving American agriculture. Today, we welcome more than 700,000 unique visitors monthly to the site. Our brand also includes a weekly TV show, podcasts, two radio programs, and several social media platforms.
Successful Farming magazine has a rich and humble history that starts with an Iowa farm boy named E.T. Meredith. After working in his uncle’s publishing business while going to college in Des Moines, he was about to marry. As a gift, Meredith was given the deed to his uncle’s newspaper, The Farmers’ Tribune, which was failing financially. On the deed, his uncle wrote the phrase, “Sink or swim.” Meredith turned that gift into Successful Farming magazine in 1902. At the time, about one-third of Americans lived or worked on farms. His goal was to make the magazine “an indispensable source of practical ideas for farmers.” He also served as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Over the years, the company added new publications, such as The Dairy Farmer. In 1922, Meredith started a publication called Fruit Garden & Home. Two years later, it was renamed Better Homes & Gardens. It is this rich and humble legacy of service to American farmers and homeowners that still resonates today.
All content at Successful Farming is created by trained journalists who have become subject-matter experts in their fields. We create independent and unbiased content with a farmer focus. Our original reporting covers many different topics, with our stories deeply researched by our editors and a select group of veteran freelance writers who rely on trusted, expert sources.
Our copy is vetted multiple times by the originating editors, two copy editors, and the editor-in-chief before it is published. In many cases, content is reviewed by the sources we quote. These “checking copies” validate our quotes and technical data and ensure accuracy. Our editors check for accuracy, readability, fairness, spelling and grammar, and clarity.
We are aligned with the Dotdash Meredith Content Integrity Promise, which includes our policies on accuracy and corrections, fact checking, independence and impartiality, and originality.
We do not take submissions.
We also have a separate division called Successful Farming Custom Solutions, which creates content for outside firms, including some advertisers. One example: we publish the National FFA magazine, New Horizons. This content is done independently by dedicated staff and agricultural freelance writers, photographers, and designers. Our editors have no involvement with the custom content division.
Gil Gullickson, Editor in Chief
Gil Gullickson grew up on a farm near Langford, South Dakota, that he owns today. He graduated from South Dakota State University with a degree in agronomy.
As Editor in Chief, he leads the editorial staff of Agriculture.com, Successful Farming magazine, radio, and television. He is past president of the Agricultural Communicators Network (ACN) and North American Agricultural Journalists. He is a three-time winner of ACN’s Writer of the Year and four-time winner of ACN’s Story of the Year.
Email: gil.gullickson@agriculture.com
Phone: 515-284-2687
Twitter: @GilGullickson
Matt Strelecki, Creative Director
Matt is the creative director for Successful Farming magazine, Ageless Iron Almanac, and FFA New Horizons magazine.
Since assuming this position in 2009, Successful Farming magazine has been nominated for 193 national design awards from Folio, Media Industry News, ASME, and ACN. ACN named Strelecki Designer of the Year in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, and honorable mention for Designer of the year in 2016, 2018, and 2019. He was inducted into the Media Industry News Hall of Fame in 2016.
Prior to this position, Strelecki spent more than 11 years as the Executive Director, Design for Meredith Books whose notable client list included Disney, Sony Pictures, DreamWorks, Marvel, Home Depot, TCL, Discovery, Mattel, and NBC’s TODAY Show, among many others. Strelecki was the lead creative for Meredith Corporation’s Traditional Home, Renovation Style, and BHG.com. He came to Meredith from Atlanta Magazine in 1994.
Laurie Bedord, Executive Editor, News & Technology
Laurie grew up in Rochester, New York. She later moved to Dansville, New York, where she became part of a family dairy operation that also grew corn, soybeans, and alfalfa. In 1997, the dairy operation was moved to Iowa.
That same year, Laurie joined the Successful Farming team as its office manager. In 2004, she was promoted to editor and covered new products. Her coverage expanded to include precision farming technology and livestock. In 2021, Laurie moved into her current role as executive editor, news & technology, overseeing website content for Agriculture.com.
Email: laurie.bedord@agriculture.com
Phone: 515-284-2853
Twitter: @BedordLaurie
Jessie Scott, Digital Executive Editor
Jessie Scott grew up on a corn, soybean, and cow-calf farm in Marengo, Iowa, where her parents farm today. In 2012, Jessie joined the Successful Farming team to cover new farm equipment for Successful Farming magazine, Agriculture.com, and the Successful Farming TV Show. That coverage expanded to include coordinating news coverage on Agriculture.com and overseeing social media, newsletters, and search. Jessie has covered stories ranging from UTV reviews to new equipment launches to how farmers can use social media to engage with consumers. In 2019, Jessie moved into a sales and marketing role, overseeing website development and digital advertising for Agriculture.com. At the end of 2022, Jessie came back to the editorial team to oversee Agriculture.com’s content creation and distribution.
Email: jessie.scott@agriculture.com
Phone: 515-284-2965
Twitter: @JessieScott1
Natalina Sents Bausch, Associate Digital Director
Natalina Sents Bausch grew up in southeast Iowa, active in 4H and FFA. Immediately after graduating from college, she spent a year visiting farmers and ranchers in all 50 states. Through blogs and photography, the project told the stories of more than 100 farm families. In 2017, Natalina joined the Successful Farming team to cover new farm machinery and news coverage for Agriculture.com. The role expanded to include managing content distribution through newsletters, social media, and search. Now, in addition to content creation, Natalina handles tracking digital analytics and manages several content provider relationships.
Email: natalina.bausch@agriculture.com
Phone: 515-306-8881
Twitter: @Roots_Journey
Lisa Foust Prater, Family & Farmstead Editor
Lisa has been with Successful Farming since 1999, starting as Commerce Editor for Agriculture.com and writing product reviews and features for the magazine. She has also written for sister publication Living the Country Life magazine and its website, and has authored and edited several cookbooks and other books for Successful Farming and Living the Country Life. Lisa has served as the Family & Farmstead Editor for Successful Farming since 2015, sharing interesting family features, heartfelt editorial columns, and important health and safety information with our readers. She also regularly contributes to Agriculture.com.
Email: lisa.foustprater@agriculture.com
Phone: 515-284-2710
Twitter: @lisafoustprater
David Ekstrom, Executive Producer & Custom Solutions
David Ekstrom grew up on a corn and soybean farm in Odebolt, Iowa, where his parents still live on the heritage farm. In 2013, David joined the Successful Farming team to produce video, audio, and photography content for Agriculture.com, Successful Farming magazine, and the Successful Farming television show. David also works on video and audio custom content creation for food and agriculture clients of Successful Farming.
Email: david.ekstrom@agriculture.com
Phone: 515-284-3345
Chelsea Dinterman, Assistant Agronomy Editor
Chelsea joined the Successful Farming team at the start of 2022. She provides agronomy coverage and editorial content for the print magazine and Agriculture.com.
Chelsea grew up in Woodsboro, Maryland, where she was an active member of 4-H and FFA. She received an agricultural communications degree from Oklahoma State University in 2019. She wrote for a regional agricultural newspaper in Kansas before moving to the Des Moines area.
Email: chelsea.dinterman@agriculture.com
Phone: 515-333-9016
Twitter: @CDintermanSF
Alex Gray, New Products Editor
Alex has been with Dotdash Meredith since 2021, starting in the imaging department where they worked on magazines across the company’s entire portfolio. They joined the Successful Farming team in December 2021 as the New Products Editor.
Alex grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and graduated from Iowa State University in 2020 with a major in public relations and a minor in English. While attending Iowa State, they joined the Iowa State Daily, a professional student-run news organization, working as an arts and entertainment writer, editor, and digital managing editor for the organization.
Email: alex.gray@agriculture.com
Cassidy Walter, Business Management Editor
Cassidy writes market updates for Agriculture.com and covers farm business stories on a range of topics, including carbon capture pipelines, land values, crop insurance, and biofuels.
Cassidy grew up in the heart of Des Moines, Iowa. Born and raised a “city girl,” Cassidy fell in love with American agriculture in college through writing stories on a variety of agriculture issues for the student newspaper, The Daily Iowan. She enjoyed talking with local farmers and learning about the industry. Cassidy has spent the past five years as the communications director for the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association where she worked to support Iowa biofuels producers and farmers.
Email: cassidy.walter@agriculture.com
Courtney Love, Digital Content Editor
Courtney Love grew up on a small SimAngus cow-calf and crossbred sheep farm in Reading, Pennsylvania, where her parents farm today. Courtney joined the Successful Farming team in the summer of 2022. She provides coverage on livestock, beef, dairy, and young farmers. Courtney received a degree in agricultural sciences with a minor in agricultural communications from Penn State.
Before joining the team, she wrote and edited for a regional farming newspaper in Pennsylvania before moving to the Des Moines area. Courtney has won several Pennsylvania News Media Association awards for her writing and photography. She also won an award for agricultural journalism from the Berks County Agricultural Resource Network.
Email: courtney.love@agriculture.com
Diana Weesner, Editorial Operations Manager
Diana oversees the magazine workflow and print procedures for Successful Farming magazine, Ageless Iron Almanac, FFA New Horizons, and Successful Farming College Edition. In addition, she helps to manage the Des Moines office and coordinate procedures for Successful Farming radio and the Living the Country Life radio program and social media.
She started her career at Meredith Corporation in 2003 as an art assistant for Meredith Integrated Marketing, working on marketing projects for outside clients. In 2007, she joined Living the Country Life as an executive assistant and later moved to the Successful Farming team as a sales and marketing assistant and then as an editorial assistant. Diana is a 1995 graduate of Iowa State University with a bachelor’s in journalism and mass communications, public relations, and another bachelor’s degree in speech communications. She lives in Adel, Iowa.
Email: diana.weesner@agriculture.com
Kat Lewis, Contracts and Billing Specialist
Kat joined the Successful Farming team in early 2021 and primarily works in the background to ensure proper paperwork is in place for print and online editorial content. She also assists with reporting and billing for the digital ad operations team. She has previously worked in various administrative assistant roles, including at a civil engineering firm and public transit.
Kat grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and attended the University of Iowa where she earned her Bachelor’s in Marketing and minored in Communications Studies.
Email: kat.lewis@agriculture.com
Jordan Brendeland, Content Editor
Jordan started at Successful Farming in September 2022. She proofreads and copy edits content for Successful Farming magazine, Ageless Iron Almanac, and FFA New Horizons, as well as Agriculture.com.
Jordan grew up in Story City, Iowa, and graduated from the University of Iowa in 2019 with degrees in English and creative writing.
Email: jordan.brendeland@agriculture.com
Justin Davey, Editorial Content Director
Justin is a 14-year veteran of Dotdash Meredith. He started as a staff editor at Living the Country Life magazine in 2007, then joined Successful Farming as multimedia producer in 2010. Justin managed content creation across several categories at Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, including automotive, nonprofit, and financial services, for clients including Volkswagen, Bank of America, and Principal Financial, before rejoining Successful Farming as editor of FFA New Horizons magazine in 2016.
He currently serves as the editorial content director of the Successful Farming Custom Solutions division, which creates content for clients in the food and agriculture sectors, and oversees the brand’s audio and video production.
Justin is a 2004 graduate of the University of Iowa with a bachelor’s degree in English. He lives in the Des Moines area.
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