Founding ISRC Director and Morrill Professor of Plafor Kirk Leeds is his wife Kim and daughter, Sierra. In photo at right is Greg Tylka with his wife Karen.nt Pathology, Entomology and Microbiology Greg Tylka was honored at a March 25th awards ceremony with the 2026 Iowa Master Farmer Exceptional Service to Agriculture Award by Wallaces Farmer. Tylka, an ISU Extension and Outreach nematologist, was nominated by colleagues from the SCN Coalition, Iowa Soybean Research Center and Iowa State University for his decades of research into soybean cyst nematode (SCN). Specifically, he was nominated for sharing his knowledge and listening to the concerns of others as a tireless advocate for agriculture. Tylka has assisted farmers and industry in understanding and managing SCN for 36 years.
Additional award recipients with ties to the ISRC included Iowa Soybean Association CEO Kirk Leeds and Iowa farmers Morey and Rhonda Hill.
Morey and Rhonda Hill, who farm near Madrid, Iowa, were one of four farming couples honored as Iowa Master Farmers. Morey serves on the ISRC’s Industry Advisory Council as a farmer representative and, ironically, is featured in an article further down in this issue of the ISRC newsletter.
Along with Tylka, Kirk Leeds was also selected for the 2026 Iowa Master Farmer Exceptional Service to Agriculture Award for his work in keeping farmers involved in policy formation and decision-making. He has led the Iowa Soybean Association for 37 years. His daughter, Sierra, accepted in his place as Leeds was in China as part of efforts to connect Iowa soybean growers and Chinese soybean buyers. Leeds was instrumental in helping establish the ISRC to work in collaboration with the ISA.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Iowa Master Farmer award program, which was started by Henry A. Wallace in 1926. The award honors farmers for outstanding management of their farming operations. The Exceptional Service to Agriculture Award, first presented in 1959, honors individuals who don’t exactly fit the Master Farmer classification but have spent a lifetime serving farmers and agriculture.
