According to media reports out late Tuesday, President-elect Obama will announce former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack as his choice for secretary of agriculture at a press conference scheduled for Wednesday.

Vilsack served two terms as governor of Iowa from from 1998 until 2006 and was a short-lived opponent of Obama’s in the presidential race. He has been with a Des Moines law firm since 2007. The last Secretary of Agriculture from Iowa was Henry Wallace who served under Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1941. Wallace was a plant geneticist who founded what is now Pioneer Hi-Bred.

Obama is also expected to announced Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) as his secretary of interior, which opens up that Senate seat for appointment by the governor. Salazar’s brother John, a potato farmer from southern Colorado who currently serves in the US House, is a possible choice.