Chase County senior takes farming in her own hands

A Chase County Schools senior and raised on her family’s farm, Jozie Schilke has always helped her dad and grandpa in the field.
“It made me want to learn how to do all of the things they do,” Schilke said. “I wanted to learn how to plant the fields, and pick the corn at the end of the season.”
When the opportunity came to manage her own field, she took it.
“I received a total of 320 acres of dryland, which I split up into four sections,” Schilke said. “I got the 320 acres from my family farm which would help me to start off.”
Schilke is farming these sections as part of her Imperial FFA supervised agricultural experience (SAE).
For the past three years, she has been farming corn and wheat each year, planting, growing and harvesting the crops.
“I am the one in the planter and combine, scouting the fields during the summer and choosing when to sell the crops,” Schilke said.
With school closed due to the pandemic, Schilke is spending her time in the field.
“Right now I am still checking my field, I still plan to go to my field in mid-May to plant my 80 acres of corn,” she said.
“As soon as the weather allows us to enter the fields, we can start planting the corn,” she added.
After graduation, Schilke plans to obtain a degree in agronomy with a minor in precision agriculture.