Halpin looks back at his FSA leadership term

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Scott Halpin’s term as Illinois Farm Service Agency executive director concluded with the change of federal administrations.

Halpin operates Halpin Farms and Halpin Farms Cattle in the Gardner and South Wilmington area along with his son, Ty; his father, Frank; and his brother, Chris. He has served as state FSA director since 2022.

In looking back over the past three years as director, what were some of the biggest challenges?

Halpin: The biggest challenge that we had was when I came into office right toward the end of COVID when offices were closed down and some farmers were upset that we didn’t have the doors open.

Then I had the opposite side. There were some farmers that were really happy because it made offices more comfortable with their electronic forms of communication.

It was kind of an odd time where things were transitioning because of COVID. That was the first big thing.

And then it’s been a three-year battle to get staffing back up to where we needed to be. A lot of industries had retirements and USDA was not excluded from that.

It was just a natural time for a lot of those kind of the tail-end baby boomers who were retiring, but it got sped up with COVID. A lot of folks just had had enough and retired early.

It’s been a three-year process to get staffed to where we need to be to provide services to farmers like we’re supposed to at FSA.

How’s the staffing going at this point?

Halpin: In the last three or four months, we have finally got to where we’re fully staffed to where we’re supposed to be. Congress kind of dictates by workload what we can have in Illinois and most of my three years has been trying to hit that number and get everybody back up to speed.

Getting staff back was huge to the morale out in the counties and it was huge to the morale in the state offices. When you don’t have the staff and you’re struggling to stay above water all of the time, it takes a toll on folks coming to work. We’re in really good shape right now.

What are some of the surprising aspects of the position that you didn’t expect when you took the office three years ago?

Halpin: I don’t know if it’s a surprise, but this job as much as anything is a people job, whether it’s talking to a member of the media, talking to commodity organizations about programs, or if it’s talking to our county office staff about how to administer programs or maybe some issues. It could be anything from personnel to programs.

Any way you look at it, it’s dealing with people. You might come into this job thinking it was going to be more about farm program and policy, but when it comes down to it it’s all about people. So, I don’t know if it’s a surprise, but that’s the reality of it.

You often attended various meetings of ag organizations, as well as giving presentations of the services FSA provides, right?

Halpin: A big part of this role is to promote the farm programs and the way you do that is being out there and talking to commodity groups.

You always think of Farm Bureau, Illinois Corn Growers Association and Illinois Soybean Association, but a huge focus in this administration has also been reaching out to the specialty growers, I attended the Illinois Farmers Union annual meeting last year and just trying to find some other organizations besides just the big ones to promote our programs, too.

What are you going to miss the most from the time you served as director?

Halpin: I’ve got to circle back to the people. It’s just been a treat to work with the folks that have the same passion for agriculture and have the same desire to see agriculture thrive in Illinois. We’re a huge agriculture state. We’re the leaders in grains. We’re growing in specialty crops.

You may not even think about this, but just the other day I was talking to an extremely large potato producer in Illinois and those are things that if I weren’t in this role I wouldn’t get to see. We’re also a huge pumpkin state and folks might not know about that.

Illinois is known for a lot more things than grain, and it’s been really cool to see some of those other commodities that we grow in Illinois.

During the last three years, you balanced FSA and family farm commitments. Halpin Farms and Halpin Farms Cattle raises corn, soybeans, alfalfa hay and silage and has an Angus cow-calf herd, marketing the beef to local customers and others. Besides going back to the family farm, do you have any other plans going forward?

Halpin: My oldest son is a little nervous that I’m going to be back around home a little bit too much. Fortunately, I always have the farm that I can go back to. I really don’t know what the next steps are.

Some folks have reached out to me, but I don’t know if those will materialize. One good thing about this position is folks know who I am, so we’ll see where the next road leads. It’s been a good experience.

I would like to thank my family from the bottom of my heart — my wife, Sarah; sons, Ty and Cale; daughter, Grace; my parents, Frank and Deb Halpin; my brother, Chris; and sister, Lynn. Without their support, I could not have been here in this position serving Illinois agriculture every day.