The Excellence in Agriculture Award is designed as an opportunity for young farmers and ranchers to earn recognition while actively contributing to and growing through their involvement in Farm Bureau and agriculture.  Participants will be judged on their involvement in agriculture, leadership ability, and involvement and participation in Farm Bureau and other civic, service, and community organizations.

Top participants will present before a panel of well-qualified judges at the Missouri Farm Bureau Annual Meeting, December 3-5, 2023. This competition will determine the state winner.

The state winner will receive a cash award and will also win a trip to the American Farm Bureau Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, in January 2024, where they will represent Missouri in the national contest.

The second and third place entries will also be recognized and receive a plaque and cash award at the Missouri Farm Bureau Annual Meeting.

Main Rules of Eligibility

• Any Farm Bureau member who is in good standing with their county Farm Bureau and has two years of Farm Bureau leadership experience.
• Must not have derived a majority of their income from an owned production agriculture enterprise for the past three years.
• Competitors can be either an individual or a married couple (husband and wife) and must be at least 18 and no more than 35 years of age as of January 31, 2024.  If married, husband and wife may apply as individuals or as co-applicants.
• Past state Achievement Award winners are not eligible to compete.

Entries are due by September 29, 2023.

*Missouri Farm Bureau reserves the option of not designating a winner, if applicants do not meet all the rules of eligibility.

Application

Background

The Young Farmers & Ranchers (YF&R) Excellence in Agriculture Award competition is designed as an opportunity for young farmers and ranchers to earn recognition, while actively contributing and growing though their involvement in Farm Bureau and agriculture. Participants will be judged on their involvement in agriculture, leadership ability, and participation/involvement in Farm Bureau and other organizations (i.e., civic, service and community). The ideal candidate(s) for the Excellence in Agriculture Award is an individual or couple who does not have the majority of his/her net income subject to normal production risk. It is recommended that the state Farm Bureaus provide, as part of the state recognition and award, an expenses-paid trip to the AFBF Annual Convention held in January 2024 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Appropriate recognition will be given to all national competitors in attendance at the AFBF Annual Convention. The AFBF YF&R Committee and the AFBF Leadership, Education, and Engagement Department will coordinate the program at the national level.

Information about the Excellence in Agriculture applicant is requested on the entry form. ALL INFORMATION IS HANDLED IN STRICT CONFIDENCE AND IS DESTROYED AFTER JUDGING IS COMPLETED.

Eligibility

• An applicant can be either an individual or a couple that is married or has similar legal rights under the law applicable to the state Farm Bureau organization. Applicant may choose to apply individually, rather than as a couple.
• Applicant(s) shall be a Farm Bureau member(s) between the ages of 18 and 35 in good standing with their county Farm Bureau. The individual or spouse/spousal-equivalent shall have reached their 18th birthday at the time they qualify for the national competition and shall not have reached their 36th birthday by the completion of the competition. Competitors qualify at the time the national application is submitted and the completion of the competition is the day awards are given out (Monday, January 22, 2024).
• Applicant(s) must be in attendance on-site at the AFBF Annual Convention to compete nationally. Applicant(s) must not have derived a majority of their gross income from an owned production agriculture enterprise in any of the past three years.
• Applicant(s) may only compete in one national YF&R competition per year.
• Past and present members of the AFBF Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee and/or their spouse are not eligible to compete.
• Past state YF&R Achievement Award winners and/or previous AFBF Achievement Award competitors are not eligible to compete.
• Previous AFBF Excellence in Agriculture Award competitors are not eligible to compete. Past state YF&R Excellence in Agriculture winners are eligible if they have not previously competed at the national level.
• Current employees or agents of county, state and/or the American Farm Bureau organizations and their affiliates are not eligible to compete. An affiliate is defined as an entity owned or controlled in whole or in part by another entity through, for example, ownership (including partial ownership) or positions on the board of directors. Past employees and interns who were responsible for implementing any of the YF&R Competitive Events at the state or national level since January 1, 2019, are ineligible.
• Each state Farm Bureau may submit one entry to be considered for national recognition and must use the AFBF entry form and application.

Entry Form & Application Guidelines

• Do not use applicant’s name, the name of his/her state or county, or any names that may bring about the recognition or identification of the applicant’s state beyond the entry form. The written versions of the application have a search feature to locate any identifiers. Verbal and presentation reference to applicants’ name, state and county will be allowed during your presentation for personalization of presentation.
• The entry form and application must be completed in first person narrative (i.e. I, me, we, etc.) for questions 1-5. “A1”/”A2” may not be used for questions 1-5. Applicants must use “A1”/“A2” to denote each applicant for all of question 6.
• Do not use abbreviations or acronyms, unless it has been spelled out once with the abbreviation in parentheses behind it. For example, United States Department of Education (USDE). AFBF, FB, and YF&R are acceptable to use throughout the application.
• The attached entry form and application are examples of the information needed for the official online application. Authorized state representatives will have access to the online portal for official state submission. No emailed or mailed entry forms will be accepted.
• State Farm Bureaus have permission to reproduce the attached entry form for state-level competition or as a recruitment tool.
• It will be up to the judges’ discretion to deduct points if applicants include activities before they were 18.

Note: Disregard of the guidelines will result in disqualification of the application.

Presentation Guidelines

• The presentation will be an interactive, 25-minute presentation in which the applicant(s) has an opportunity to share the contents of their entire application in narrative form with a panel of three judges and the audience.
  • Applicant(s) will have 25 minutes to present on the topics addressed in the application and address questions from the judges. Applicants will be notified by the timekeeper when 10 minutes are remaining and again when five minutes are remaining. Each judge will be prepared to ask one question. At 25 minutes, time will be called and the applicant’s time in front of the judges will conclude even if judges have not been able to ask their questions. It will be up to the applicant(s) to determine how to use this time. If the answers to the judges’ questions are complete before time is called, the room moderator will call time.
• The only visual means in which to deliver the information is through a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation. The applicant(s) needs to submit their presentation on a USB flash drive during the Excellence in Agriculture  Competitor Orientation. Once the presentation has been downloaded onto the laptop, it cannot be changed. A computer, LCD projector, screen and one slide advancer remote will be provided. All presentations must be formatted to work on a PC. Contestants will not be allowed to use their own computer.
• Verbal and presentation references to applicant(s) name, state and county will be allowed during the presentation.
• No props (including notes), sound or video of any kind will be allowed during the presentation.
• Applicants and their state coordinators are not allowed to view other presentations until after they have completed their own.

Judging

• All applications will be judged prior to the AFBF Annual Convention. Applicants will present to a different set of judges at the Annual Convention.

Application Form

Please complete the form. If you wish to start the application but complete it later, scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Save.” The application submission deadline is September 29, 2023.