David E. Klein, AFM, ALC, is Vice President, Managing Broker, and Agricultural Asset Manager for First Mid Ag Services (formerly Soy Capital Ag Services), in Bloomington, Illinois. He is a native of this area, where he grew up on a grain and livestock farm between Gridley and Lexington, Illinois before graduating from the University of Illinois with Honors in 1993. David began his career with Magna Trust Company in Decatur, Illinois, managing, appraising and providing agricultural real estate sales/acquisition services from Illinois to Ohio. In 1997, he moved to Bloomington and began his career with the company that is now Soy Capital, managing farmland in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota and Oklahoma.
David earned his Accredited Farm Manager designation in 1999 from the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. In 2001, David, along with his team of farm managers in Bloomington, was named Farm Manager of the Year by the ASFMRA for their outstanding performance results, growth and research efforts. During this time, he oversaw the seed research testing and input purchasing program conducted for Soy Capital clients and tenants. This program purchases over five million dollars of seed each year. In 2005, he was named to succeed Wallace Yoder as the managing real estate broker for Soy Capital Ag Services and has made this his main priority since then while still managing over 12,000 acres of land for select clients in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Missouri. In 2012, he became Managing Auctioneer for Soy Capital. In 2014, he was awarded his Accredited Land Consultant-Advanced designation by the REALTORS Land Institute and named the Illinois Land Broker of the Year. In 2016 he became co-Chair of the ISPFRMA Land Values and Lease Trends Conference and continued that role through 2020. In 2020 he was once again named Land Broker of the Year by the Illinois Chapter of RLI. David continues manage many aspects of the 3,000 acre family farm operation today, located between Gridley and Lexington, Illinois.