Rahe award special for Porter

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Teachers, textbooks, an attentive student and supportive parents are the basic ingredients for a good education, but the frosting is the additional lessons learned through experiences.

Janette Porter was awarded the Dave Rahe Excellence in Soils Consulting Award, an accolade named in honor of Dave Rahe, a former ILSoyAdvisor CCA Soy Envoy who passed away suddenly in April 2020. She was recognized at the Illinois Soybean Association’s Soybean Summit Feb. 2.

For Porter, the award was extra special because she and Rahe formed RPM Soils in 2016 and shared management of the company until his passing.

“Dave was a soil scientist at heart and just knew more about the soil than anybody that I’ve ever met. We would spend a lot of time riding around in the truck doing soil fertility work or looking at soils and classifying them. So, he would teach me about that and agronomy and crops and soils and life,” Porter said.

“He always told me he was trying to pour as much into me as he could, and he did a very good job of that.

“It’s been a huge honor for me to receive the award. It means a lot. He was a great mentor, friend and business partner.”

Porter grew up on a family farm in Pike County. She graduated from Southern Illinois University Carbondale with a bachelor’s degree in plant and soil sciences in 2010. She began working as an agricultural consultant in 2011.

Porter has also been employed part-time with Bradshaw Custom Pumping since 2010. There she is involved with GPS coordinating and sending out as-applied maps and nutrient analysis to clients from their manure applications.

She is a Certified Crop Adviser and a member of the Illinois Soil Classifiers Association where she assists in classifying soils for possible septic sites.

Early Interest

Porter’s interest in soil science began on the family’s Pike County farm and expanded when she became involved in agriculture classes and FFA in high school.

“My dad and my uncles were tired of guessing on what to apply for their inputs, so they’re like, ‘when are you going to start doing this for us and helping out?’” she said.

“I started my career path there, working in southwestern Illinois until Dave and I formed our partnership. After his passing, she assumed all of the responsibilities.”

Porter’s business covers and large swath or western, central and southern Illinois and she was asked what she enjoys most about her career.

“We do soil sampling and soil fertility work, so I get to be out on a four-wheeler riding around on farms and that’s probably the biggest thing that is fun for me,” Porter noted.

She also enjoys helping farmers solve problems in their fields.

“I’m an unbiased source and I tell them what they need just based on what their soil fertility levels are. I enjoy helping them out and try to mitigate their cost of inputs and everything else that they’re dealing with these days,” she said.

Rahe’s Legacy

Rahe specialized in soil fertility, site specific fertilizer application and soil management and was a Certified Professional Soil Scientist, Certified Professional Soil Classifier and 4R Certified Crop Adviser. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in agronomy.

After a 25-year career with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Illinois and Missouri, Rahe began consulting in 2005 and formed RPM Soils with Porter in February 2016.