As Col. Joe Ricker approached retirement from his 30-year career in the United States Army, he received several lucrative job offers. But instead of accepting one of those, he settled on a farm just east of Indianapolis.
At the time, Ricker’s only experience with agriculture was an online beekeeping curriculum he’d completed through Heroes to Hives, the nation’s largest agriculture training program for military service members.
“I grew up in the Chicago suburbs,” Ricker says. “I had no experience growing crops or with plants or trees.”
However, he’d enjoyed the Heroes to Hives curriculum and was impressed with the program’s founder, Adam Ingrao, who is also an Army veteran and a nationally recognized veterans’ advocate. So, Ricker decided to take this knowledge and try beekeeping and advocacy on his own.
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Rooted in Service
Today, Ricker manages At Ease Orchard, a farm with more than 200 apple trees, a dozen beehives, chickens and, most recently, a few Nigerian dwarf goats. At Ease Orchard is a nonprofit, and its primary purpose being to cultivate veterans into agriculturists.
“Veterans coming out of service who think about farming realize there are challenges, both financially and a lack of knowledge or skills,” Ricker says. “We enable veterans to explore farming and see if it’s right for them.”
At Ease Orchard introduces veterans and their families to beekeeping and other agricultural endeavors, such as raising chickens or goats. Ricker often receives chickens through Purdue Extension.
“When kids in 4-H incubate eggs and a chick hatches, if the family doesn’t want to raise the chickens, they go back to Purdue Extension,” Ricker explains. “We pick those up for my farm, and then we give them to veteran farmers to raise.”
Ricker estimates he’s given at least 100 chickens to veterans in 2025. He also took in a few goats when a veteran farmer became ill and needed to find a new home for them. Ricker uses the goats as an opportunity to teach veterans about ruminant mammals.
His farm is not the only avenue for Ricker’s service. He founded Veterans IN Farming, which provides veterans and their dependent families with training and support to succeed in agriculture.
Ricker also serves as veteran outreach coordinator for the National AgrAbility Project, which helps farmers, ranchers and agricultural workers with disabilities remain in the workforce. And he’s still involved with Heroes to Hives, which uses beekeeping not only to help veterans with a financial opportunity but to heal with a therapeutic activity.
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Sowing Success
Learn More
To learn more about At Ease Orchard, visit ateaseorchard.org, and check out vetsinfarming.wildapricot.org for more about Veterans IN Farming.
Ricker enjoys his farm tasks, whether interacting with the playful goats or tending to his bees. But his greatest reward comes from enabling veterans to achieve success.
“Success comes at different levels for different people,” Ricker says. “People receiving therapy will be good in agriculture but maybe never own a farm of any type. Others own a farm already and are trying to be successful.”
He’s observed that the skills he and his fellow veterans gained in the military – risk assessment, planning and decision-making – translate well into agriculture.
“In the military, you always assess what is the worst that can happen and how do you mitigate that?” Ricker explains. “I think that happens in farming a lot.”
For Ricker’s work serving veterans through agriculture, he is the first recipient of the Veteran Farmer Award of Excellence presented by the American Farm Bureau Federation with support from Farm Credit. The award was established to recognize veterans or service members for excellence in farming or agriculture and their positive impact on local communities.
“Veterans have been through experiences that are different than most people,” Ricker says. “I think it’s really important as a community to circle around them, help them and give them an environment like farming, which is also a community-driven atmosphere, to help our veterans get to a better place.”
Through his work in teaching classes or attending Veterans IN Farming conferences, Ricker is a willing ear to listen to veterans talk about their experiences. When needed, he makes referrals for mental health support and resources. This advocacy comes naturally to Ricker.
“As a veteran, you want to continue to serve something, as serving my soldiers or my country is what I’ve been doing all my career,” he says. “I like the ability to serve and to help people, and veterans are the community where I thought I could use my talents the best.”
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Veteran Farmer Award of Excellence
In true servant-leader fashion, inaugural Veteran Farmer Award of Excellence recipient Joe Ricker has used the award to further elevate his work, enriching the lives of veterans through agriculture.
“Getting this recognition has made me much smarter to all the resources and opportunities within the American Farm Bureau Federation,” says Ricker, citing examples such as making contacts with the Farm Bureau presidents in Alaska and Ohio for veteran-specific opportunities. “It’s certainly helped me with making more connections across the country.”
Ricker will improve outreach and national networking and train additional veterans in beekeeping thanks to the award’s $10,000 cash prize, presented by AFBF with support from Farm Credit.
“We’re proud to elevate and celebrate retired Army Col. Ricker for his past service to our country and current involvement in agriculture and local communities,” says Zippy Duvall, AFBF president.
