KDSN RADIO News
NW Iowa farmer appointed state director of USDA Rural Development
President Trump has appointed a farmer and long-time state legislator from Rockwell City to serve as State Director for USDA Rural Development.
Mike Sexton, a fourth generation farmer, resigned from his seat in the Iowa House on Friday. Sexton and his wife raise grain-fed sheep on their Calhoun County Farm, without hormones or antibiotics, and sell lamb chops, ground lamb and other cuts of lamb from the Sexton Sheep Farm online store.
In 2013, Sexton received an entrepreneur of the year award from the Iowa Small Business Development Center for creating software for livestock operators, to keep track of nutrient loads from applying manure to farmland.
Sexton served one term in the Iowa Senate and was in the middle of his fifth term in the Iowa House. Sexton, who had been chairman of the Agriculture Committee in the Iowa House, will now be state director for a federal agency that has more than 50 financial assistance programs for rural development.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, in a news release announcing the appointment of Sexton and other USDA officials, said the group “will help carry forward the important work of serving the people who feed and fuel our country, delivering real results for rural America, putting our Farmers First. Together, we will continue to strengthen our food supply, protect our family farms, and ensure USDA is working on behalf of the American people.”
