Daryl Starr, President, CCA
Daryl Starr is President of Advanced Ag Solutions. He provides leadership to the team as well as service development and on-going client consulting.
Daryl specializes in Farm Risk Management, Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning.
Since 2005, Daryl has synthesized the collaboration of 5 full time employees, ~12 summer interns annually, 121 clients and numerous suppliers. He has developed industry leading services in Integrated Crop Management and on-farm spatial data decision making tools and services. Additionally, he has pursued and successfully obtained major agreements with industry leaders for the benefit of the Qualified Grower Network. Through this he has maintained sole ownership of Advanced Ag Solutions while growing from a core 4,000 acres of initial clients to over 200,000 acres of influence and many more on the horizon.
Daryl attended Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN where he was double majoring in English Literature and Krannert’s Business Management. He rented his first farm while still at school and graduated the next summer with a degree in English.
Daryl was raised in Connersville, IN on a corn/soybean farm where he learned the value of hard work and effective execution of a well thought out plan. He weathered 4 years after college learning the seasonal chores of crop farming more intimately before committing full time to Advanced Ag Solutions.
Daryl is happily married to his wife of 8 years, Allison, with whom he has a two daughters, Anna, 4, Alexa <1 year old. He is an active member of Kossuth Street Baptist Church in Lafayette, IN and a recent board addition to The CrossWalk Project, Inc, where a growing team is passionately developing living and ministry space for international students on college campuses. Daryl also recently launched a pasture based dairy business where AAS clients have an opportunity to integrate high margin farming practices into their business.
Email: Daryl@AdvancedAgSolutions.com
Michelle Sweeten, Regional Agronomist, CCA
Michelle's agronomic experience stems from a strong background of scouting, and supervising scouts. While an employee of AAS she has become a good resource as the main tech person when dealing with PDA and GPS issues. She has also become adept at soil sampling and creating recommendations for growers. Now that her CCA certification is complete she hopes to become our main resource person as a technical service provider for the NRCS.
Michelle has a BS from Purdue University in Agricultural Education and also a MS in Agricultural Education with a minor in Entomology. She has worked a lot with Purdue on the various pocket guides and enjoys creating useful materials for farmers.
She spent her youth near the small towns of Silver Lake and North Manchester, IN. While her parents did not farm, her grandfather only recently retired from his very small farm. She knew from a young age that she wanted to be involved in agriculture. She helped her grandfather as much as a small girl could, and was very active in both 4-H and FFA.
Michelle and her husband cash crop 100 acres of forage crops and have recently extended their interests to custom raising dairy heifers for Spielwiese Dairy. They also custom run 2 self-propelled hay mowers. Their son Paul and daughter Ruth keep them both very busy! When she's not busy with family or business she enjoys riding her mule, reading, and just enjoying the outdoors with family and friends.
Email: Michelle@AdvancedAgSolutions.com
Craig Angle, Regional Agronomist
Craig Angle is from Rushville, IN, where he grew up on his family’s corn, soybean, and hog farm.
Craig has a BS degree in Soil and Crop Science from Purdue University. While at Purdue he was involved with FarmHouse Fraternity, and previously to that he was an active member in the Rushville, FFA chapter as well as 4-H.
His experiences in this industry include scouting for a local seed corn company and his own farm ground, as well as soil sampling and variable fertilizer recommendations for Precision Partners as their agronomist in Hope, IN.
Recently he was able to purchase a house near his family and is farming some in the family operation as well as fulfilling his new role as regional agronomist with Advanced Ag Solutions.
Email: Craig@AdvancedAgSolutions.com
Erika McCloud, Director of Marketing
As Director of Marketing for Advanced Ag Solutions, Erika feels that it is her duty to clearly represent the brand that is Advanced Ag Solutions. Her main goal is to accurately portray Daryl's original vision of being a third party independent source for farmers.
Erika has been with AAS since the beginning, designing the logo and website as her first tasks. Since then, her position has greatly expanded including marketing and sales management, as well as strategic planning.
Erika received her Bachelor of Arts in Communication with an emphasis in Advertising from Purdue University and went on to receive an Associate of Science in Computer Graphics Technology from Purdue as well. She has had experience with newspaper advertising, an ad agency, printing company, full service marketing firm, as well as loyalty marketing for an airline.
She grew up in Connersville, Indiana. She is the daughter of a Marketing and Sales Director and an Engineer, both who are very artistic and active in the community. Through their support, she has learned a strong since of loyalty and family.
Erika, her husband Gary, and daughter Ella currently live in Brownsburg Indiana. In her spare time, if there is any, she enjoys baking, photography, sewing, decorating and anything artistic. She also enjoys fishing and walks with her husband.
Email: Erika@AdvancedAgSolutions.com
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