By: Beth Cimaglia, South Jersey Climate News Staff Writer
Editor’s Note: This article is published in partnership with South Jersey Climate News.
PEDRICKTOWN, N.J. — Salem County vegetable and grain farmer Zach Heiken of ZRH Farms in Pedricktown is a national winner in the 2025 Outstanding Young Farmers of America Convention, according to an announcement by the NJ Department of Agriculture.
Heiken, also New Jersey’s 2025 Outstanding Young Farmer, was one of four national winners selected from a group of 10 finalists for the 2025 award. To grant the award, announced earlier this year at the convention in Des Moines, Iowa, judges consider farmers’ “progress in an agricultural career, extent of soil and water conservation practices and contributions to the well-being of the community, state, and nation,” according to a press release posted on the department’s website.
In a statement for the release, Heiken expressed his gratitude to the convention organizers.
“It is truly an honor to be recognized nationally among the outstanding candidates we were with last week,” Heiken said. “I want to thank everyone who has supported me and our operation from when I first started learning about farming as youth up to where this journey has taken us today.”
Heiken started farming in 2005 with approximately 100 acres, according to the release. The business since has grown to more than 4,000 acres of rented and owned land, employing 70 employees and harvesting peppers, cucumbers, asparagus, soybeans, wheat, corn, and eggplant.
Conservation practices used by Heiken include “using drip irrigation with center pivots that now covers approximately 2,500 acres of the land he farms,” the release states. “While he plants no-till crops where possible, he also plants rye strips in the headlands and roadways to protect plants on windy spring days and keep the sand and soil from blowing away.”
Heiken began vegetable farming on a neighboring farm as a youth, and said he knew he wanted to take up farming indefinitely after graduating from high school.
“I was very fortunate to have a family that supported my goals, and I was able to save every dollar I earned at a construction job in New York City for a year,” Heiken said in the statement. “A motto I have carried with me throughout my farming experience, was that no limit is best. I am open to new ideas in growth and development to my farm, while still holding traditional farming values in my work ethic and crops.
“Once I meet a goal, another has already formatted in my mind,” he added. “I live my life never shying away from what may seem impossible to some, because the many challenges I have faced over the years have only brought me to where I am today. The satisfaction that I get out of seeing a crop to completion is second to none.”
The Outstanding Young Farmers of America convention has been held annually each February in a different region in the United States since 1955.
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