A college friendship opened the door for Zac Preston to pursue his career in farming. Now, as chair of the Iowa Farm Bureau’s Young Farmer Advisory Committee for 2024-25, Preston hopes to foster networking opportunities for other young farmers to forge their own career paths in agriculture.

Balancing financial resources and timing when opportunities arise is one of the biggest challenges young farmers encounter, says the 35-year-old Warren County Farm Bureau member.

“It seems like the opportunities are few and far between, no matter what age you are,” Preston says. “For young farmers, the hard part is finding the balance of when the time is right, do we have the financial ability to move forward with it.”

Preston’s own farming journey stemmed from a friendship with one of his Iowa State University fraternity brothers, Blake Reynolds, who founded Reynolds Ag Solutions, an agronomic services provider in Indianola, ...