Matt Perreault was born to be a farmer.
He was riding around in a combine and tractor with his father, Bret, when he was an infant.
“They say I was born in June and out in the fields by the fall,” he says.
He was actually helping on the farm by age 6 or 7. Now 31, Perreault works on a family farm west of Kankakee with his father.
He’s a fourth-generation farmer, working the land that his father and grandfather, Ambrose, worked before him. A fifth generation of Perreault farming should arrive shortly as Matt and his wife, Ashley, are expecting.
Altogether Matt helps work 1,400 acres of soy, corn and wheat. That includes land the family owns, land they cash rent and a 20-acre parcel he owns himself.
“Nothing is more rewarding,” Matt says, “than the smell of the dirt, the smell of the pollen.”
He says farming is a great profession. Having been involved in ag-related activities for years, Perreault is well-placed to provide a farming perspective.
As a youth, he was a member of the Little Ducks 4-H Club of Chebanse and participated in the Iroquois County Fair.
At Central High School in Clifton, of which he is a 2008 graduate, he was an FFA member whose project was raising 10 acres of food-grade white corn. The project is a way of “getting your feet wet” by learning different aspects of farming, including the “financials.”
He went on to become a 2012 graduate of University of Illinois with a degree in technical systems management. This equipped him to deal with the mechanical aspects of farm equipment, working on hydraulics, transmissions and welding.
That fed into another farming interest. Since the age of 15, Perreault has been working for Shoup Manufacturing.
Shoup designs, creates and markets the parts needed to keep combines and other large agricultural machines running and in the fields. Perreault explains that when a large firm, like John Deere, comes out with a new piece of equipment, Shoup goes to work determining which parts are likely to wear out and need replacement. Those parts could be chains, bearings or augurs, for example.
Perreault works in research and development and says he enjoys the work. Shoup’s parts not only go across the country, but all over the world.
“It’s neat to have that kind of a role,” Perreault said of his work at Shoup.
The Perreault family is active with the Kankakee County Farm Bureau. His father has represented Otto Township on the Farm Bureau since 2001, and Matt has been the chairman of the Young Leaders Committee since 2015. Young Leaders are farmers anywhere from high school through their mid-30s.
“It is a good way to network, for people to meet from the opposite ends of the county,” he said.
He has been part of Kids Day at the Farm, a long local tradition, since he was a fourth-grader. Kids Day at the Farm is an open house of sorts that introduces children from urban settings to agriculture. Participating children learn what farmers do and what Illinois farmers produce. Matt ran the John Deere demonstration at the event for years.
Pleased and thankful for his job at Shoup and enthused about being out in the field, Perreault feels good about the farming life.
“I wish everybody could get the opportunity to experience what I have been fortunate enough to do,” he said.