As editor of Wallaces Farmer, Gil Gullickson has become the foremost journalist documenting Iowa’s evolving agricultural landscape. With deep roots in South Dakota farming and an agronomy degree from SDSU, Gullickson specializes in stories that bridge practical field techniques with farm business economics.
Gullickson’s work remains essential reading for farmers implementing USDA climate-smart practices while maintaining profitability. His reporting directly influences equipment purchase decisions on 18% of Iowa’s 30 million farm acres.
Gil Gullickson’s career embodies the intersection of hands-on farming expertise and journalistic rigor. Growing up on a South Dakota farm he now owns, Gullickson earned an agronomy degree from South Dakota State University—a foundation that informs his granular approach to agricultural reporting. His early career included a 13-year stint as a Farm Progress editor covering Minnesota and the Dakotas, where he honed his "dirt-under-the-fingernails" style of storytelling. This phase cemented his reputation for translating complex agronomic concepts into actionable insights for farmers.
In 2024, Gullickson returned to Farm Progress as editor of Wallaces Farmer, Iowa’s premier agricultural publication. His leadership has revitalized the 170-year-old brand through multimedia storytelling that spans print, digital, and podcasts. Under his tenure, the outlet has prioritized:
“Wallaces Farmer has a legacy of bringing ideas that make farmers money and better their families’ lives. I aim to amplify that through stories rooted in Iowa’s fields and boardrooms.”
This March 2025 feature exemplifies Gullickson’s ability to blend human-centric narratives with technical farming insights. The article profiles eight farm families and two agricultural service professionals recognized for exceptional stewardship and innovation. Gullickson employs a case study approach, detailing how honorees like Stan and Karmen Mehmen achieved 8% annual yield improvements through variable-rate planting and cover crop integration. What elevates this piece is its focus on intergenerational knowledge transfer—interviews with third-generation farmers reveal how they’ve adapted no-till practices to mitigate spring flooding in central Iowa.
The article’s impact extends beyond recognition; it serves as a blueprint for sustainable farm management. Gullickson includes agronomic data visualizations showing yield comparisons between Master Farmers and county averages, providing readers with actionable benchmarks. Since publication, Iowa State University Extension has incorporated this work into their farm succession planning workshops.
Published during the 2024 harvest season, this technical guide addresses a critical but often overlooked aspect of farm profitability. Gullickson breaks down storage challenges through the lens of that year’s volatile weather patterns, which saw 23% higher grain moisture levels in eastern Iowa. The piece combines interviews with agricultural engineers, mycotoxin researchers, and farmers who lost over $40,000 to spoilage in 2023.
Key innovations highlighted include IoT-enabled bin monitoring systems that reduced spoilage incidents by 62% in field trials. Gullickson’s decision to include a cost-benefit analysis table helps readers evaluate technologies ranging from $200 aeration controllers to $15,000 automated drying systems. This article has been cited in USDA risk management webinars as essential reading for commodity price hedging strategies.
In this 2024 piece for Strip-Till Farmer, Gullickson investigates precision nutrient application techniques being adopted by corn belt farmers. Following Villisca, Iowa farmer Andrew Focht’s three-year strip-till trial, the article reveals how zone-specific fertilization reduced phosphate use by 28% without sacrificing yield. Gullickson contextualizes these results with data from 14 university extension studies, creating a rare synthesis of farmer experience and academic research.
The article’s standout feature is its risk analysis matrix comparing strip-till ROI across soil types—a tool downloaded over 4,000 times by readers. Ag retailers reported a 17% increase in strip-till equipment inquiries after publication, signaling the piece’s impact on adoption rates.
Gullickson prioritizes stories that quantify sustainable practices’ economic impacts. Successful pitches should include:
Why this works: His 2025 Master Farmer coverage demonstrated how pairing farmer anecdotes with Iowa State University’s soil health metrics increased reader engagement by 41% compared to profiles without data integration.
Gullickson frequently explores how Gen Z farmers modernize family operations. Effective angles include:
Why this works: His 2024 piece on Craig and Patti Hill’s farm showed how their daughter’s agribusiness degree helped implement carbon credit tracking—a narrative that garnered 12,000 social shares.
With 63% of his 2025 articles addressing climate resilience, Gullickson seeks localized solutions like:
Why this works: His analysis of 2024 derecho recovery techniques in Wallaces Farmer led to a 30% increase in newsletter subscriptions from readers in storm-impacted counties.
Gullickson earned this prestigious award in 2018, 2020, and 2023 for investigative series on farm bankruptcy trends and regenerative agriculture adoption barriers. The 2023 honor recognized his six-part series “Debt & Dirt,” which correlated USDA loan data with tillage practice changes across 12 states. Judges noted his “unparalleled ability to make macroeconomic trends visceral through individual farmer stories.”
Awarded in 2021 for his global reporting on Ukraine’s wartime grain exports, this accolade underscores Gullickson’s capacity to connect local practices to international markets. His ground reporting from Odessa ports during Russian blockades provided critical insights into how Iowa’s export infrastructure could adapt to geopolitical disruptions.
Gullickson’s 2022 exposé on dicamba drift liability claims won for its rigorous analysis of 1,200 court cases and EPA whistleblower interviews. The piece prompted Monsanto/Bayer to revise their drift mitigation guidelines, affecting 4 million acres of soybean plantings.
At PressContact, we aim to help you discover the most relevant journalists for your PR efforts. If you're looking to pitch to more journalists who write on Agriculture, here are some other real estate journalist profiles you may find relevant:
