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Albion Customer Outfitting Illinois and Beyond

Farming and hunting in Illinois are getting national attention as part of a new outdoors show that is sponsored by Farm Credit Services of Illinois and is airing on Fox Sports, Fox Digital Cable and the Sportman’s Channel.

Campbell Illinois Outdoors is the brainchild of John Campbell of rural Carmi, who utilizes his farming and outfitting operation as backdrops for 13 original shows that began airing this month. Three different types of shows will air during the first 26-week season:

Standard shows – shows featuring individual hunters pursuing whitetail deer, turkey and coyote;
Campbell Whitetail Challenge shows – hunting and filming competitions open to teams from across the country matching their videotaping skills in filming hunts; and
Campbell Celebrity Whitetail Challenge – hunting and filming competitions featuring well-known celebrities and their selected cameramen on a whitetail deer hunt.

Campbell also has plans for a Campbell Turkey Challenge similar to the Whitetail Challenge.

Campbell explains although his venture into television is an avenue to promote his outfitting operation and attract hunters from around the US, the premise is to showcase Illinois agriculture and its contribution to wildlife habitat as well as to educate Americans the two are mutually beneficial.

“Filming in the Midwest, in an agriculture-related setting shows how production agriculture is not harmful to wildlife, but a boon to the deer and turkey populations,” Campbell said. “We can show actual food plots and how those plots produce quality Illinois deer,” he said.

By caring for and enhancing the habitat for wildlife, there is a return to the farm, as well, Campbell says. “We are also showing that agriculture is making a change…from clearing land (for agriculture production) to using our resources as a valuable tool. Our hunting land butts up to the Wabash River; it’s the best hunting and agricultural land, but without the hunting aspect, the land would not be as valuable,” he said.

Farm Credit Services of Illinois joined as a sponsor in December 2003 after being contacted by Campbell, a FCS IL customer who does business with the Albion office. “John has always cared for the land, whether it is in production agriculture or part of his hunting operation,” says Dick Brewer, VP Financial Services, Farm Credit Services of Illinois Albion Branch Office. “He considers land a valuable tool; he adds value to it the moment it is his and works annually to improve its productivity. In return, the land brings beneficial returns for him, either in terms of greater yields or by attracting hunters.”

Aaron Johnson, Farm Credit Services of Illinois Senior Vice President of strategic initiatives, says Farm Credit Services is proud to be a sponsor of an operation that is on the cutting edge of diversified agriculture in Illinois. “Land in many parts of Illinois has a recreational use, which adds value to the land, making it as valuable or more valuable than tillable farmland,” Johnson says. “This is definitely one segment of Illinois agriculture that will continue to grow.”

Campbell is counting on a strong market for hunters, which he hopes to attract through the Campbell Illinois Outdoors shows, which he films on the acres of land he owns and leases in White County and produces in a machine shed-type building at Campbell Resources, Inc., the parent company of Campbell Illinois Outdoors and the Campbell farming operation.

Campbell employs a producer/director as part of his in-house video production unit that shoots, directs and produces the shows; has on staff a lead hunting guide who plants and maintains food plots, sets hunting stands and coordinates hunters; and incorporates friends and family members into the show production. Banners bearing sponsor names are hung on the walls of the headquarters and are in plain sight when Campbell interviews returning hunters, asking questions about the quality of the hunt and for details about their successes.

Many of those successes are displayed on the wall of the walk-in cooler, where hunters post their name, the size of the deer, and their home state. In 2003 individuals from 31 states hunted with Campbell Illinois Outdoors, some as far away as Hawaii. “They come from all over,” Campbell says, “but our biggest draw is from the Northeast.”

Campbell says the popularity of operations like Campbell Illinois Outdoors is driven largely by access to available hunting ground, noting that a few years ago individuals would pay a couple hundred dollars to hunt on specific land, but found that others were paying the same amount for access to the same ground. Today, those individuals are paying to keep others out of the areas they are hunting, he said.

Campbell Illinois Outdoors began airing January 4 on the two FOX networks on Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m., and the Sportsman’s Channel (check listings for times). The 13 original shows will air eight times weekly through the end of March. The show’s second season is scheduled for October through December 2004