AGRICULTURE.COM • December 23, 2020
Larry Roadman, a self-proclaimed city boy from Maryland, remembers working on his grandparents’ farm in Iowa for three weeks each summer. John H. Roadman, Larry’s great-grandfather, drove a covered wagon from Pennsylvania to settle the land in the 1870s, which is now a 400-acre seed corn and bean farm with myriad conservation practices in place. Absentee landowners, Larry and his wife, Betsy, live in Maine, and their sons, Keene and Christian, reside in Maine and Illinois, respectively. Their passion for conservation and sustaining the farm legacy, however, has spanned the distance. To fulfill their vision, the Roadmans have relied upon generations of local families to manage and operate the farm. Jeff and Morgan Troendle, a father-and-son team with Hertz Farm Management, have served as farm managers for the past 30 years.