Jake Perino

Farmer, Deer Grove, Illinois

My name is Jake Perino. I am from Deer Grove, Illinois. I am the 4th generation farmer in my family with my great grandparents coming from Italy and finally settling here in northwestern Illinois. On our farm we raise commercial corn, beans, wheat, and alfalfa as well as parent seed corn and parent seed beans. We also raise cattle from 700-pound calves to finish. In 2015 I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville with degrees in Agriculture Engineering and Agriculture Business. When I graduated from college, I came back to our family farm. In 2018 my father and I built a 300’ x 65’ mono-slope cattle feed yard where we finish 1,000 head of cattle per year. Our cattle sales go to Aurora Packing Company and from there the cattle get shipped to Japan due to increase yield and grade. We also have a small business where we sell meat direct to the consumer and with that entity, we will help feed 100 families per year. In our grain division our corn goes to the ethanol plant and our beans go to the southern United States where they get processed for soy meal for the hog industry. With our wheat production, we are the largest wheat producers in the area and our wheat goes the new ADM flour mill in Mendota where our wheat gets ground into flour for cake batter. We raise experimental seed beans for Bayer-Asgrow and Corteva Agri Science. After the beans are harvested, they will be treated, packaged, and sold as commercial soybeans to producers around the Midwest. We also raise parent seed corn for AgRelient Genetics and Bayer- Dekalb. Similar to the seed beans, the corn will be harvested, treated, packaged and sent to seed dealers around the United States based on seed traits and seed characteristics that certain climates and producers may demand I currently work for Bayer- Dekalb and AgRelient Genetics in the parent seed corn industry in aid to the detasseling process that takes place with cross-pollinating varieties.