The next generation: Farm Bureau honors Young Farmers & Ag Professionals

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Indiana Farm Bureau honored its Young Farmers & Ag Professionals at the INFB State Convention in Fort Wayne.

The event’s theme was “Grow: Planting Seeds for Our Future.”

Awards were presented to Mark and Jessica Wenning of Henry County, Chelsea O’Brien of Spencer County and Rachel Hyde of Hamilton County.

Achievement Award

Mark and Jessica Wenning, winners of the Achievement Award, farm separately from his father, but work together often to raise corn and soybeans. They also grow cover crops in the winter every year and install drainage tile as time permits.

Jessica, who works off the farm as a certified public accountant for Ernst & Young in Indianapolis, grew up on a dairy farm in Ohio, where her family raised about 100 Holstein cows. She then attended Ball State University and earned a degree in accounting, finance and economics.

Mark got started in Farm Bureau as a child.

“My dad was a county president, so I grew up in Farm Bureau and I’ve been somewhat involved and got much more involved as I got a little older, especially when we joined the state committee,” he said.

After ending their term on the Young Farmers & Ag Professional State Committee, the Wennings became co-chairs of their county’s Young Farmers & Ag Professionals program.

“We felt like it was a good opportunity to apply for the Achievement Award right now after completing our term on the state committee. As chair of the awards and competitions subcommittee, I had the opportunity to see other individuals apply for this award,” Jessica said.

“The opportunity to meet and get to know other achievement award finalists and winners really increased my desire to go ahead and apply for the award ourselves.”

As the Wennings applied for the award, they got to delve deeper into their operation, taking a better look at their finances, how they are running the farm, what makes them successful and how they can improve even more.

Their goal for the future is straightforward — growth.

“We want to at some point be able to pass it on to our children, so we’re always looking for opportunities to expand whether renting or buying more land,” said Mark, a board member of the Indiana Soybean Alliance, adding that he also wants to grow as a leader.

“Professionally over the next five years, I would like to continue to develop my personal leadership skills, as well as develop my team, as well. I want to coach them and develop them as much as possible so that they are ready to move up to the next level,” Jessica said.

“Farming is definitely a way of life for us and the farming operation creates profitability and allows us to live our lives, but the farming operation is also about teaching our children where their food comes from and feeding America.”

Growing up on a farm got Mark, who studied agricultural systems management and agricultural economics at Purdue University, interested in farming.

“After college, I decided to return to the farm in order to continue to grow the family farm and hopefully have something to pass on to future generations,” he said.

Excellence In Agriculture Award

The ag story of Chelsea O’Brien, winner of the Excellence in Agriculture Award, started on her grandfather’s dairy farm in southern Indiana.

“My grandpa and my uncle had dairy and row crops, and my uncle and my aunt babysat me when I was little, and so I was really immersed in the farm lifestyle early on,” she recalled. “And then it really progressed through 4-H and FFA, and I got exposed to Purdue and decided that’s what I wanted to do as my career.”

After graduating from Purdue, O’Brien started as a marketing associate at Beck’s Hybrids and worked there for several years. She is now at Superior Ag.

“As the marketing communications manager, I am in charge of helping communicate the products and services that we offer as the cooperative and also just helping to share our brand story with our customers and the communities in which we work and live,” she said.

She and her husband, Tyler, and their sons, Fletcher and Tanner, are very active at home with their garden.

“We think it’s really important to teach our kids the value of raising your own food, and then our goal with that is hopefully to sell it to the farmers markets one day and let that be their project,” she said.

O’Brien got her start in Farm Bureau while at Purdue in the Collegiate Farm Bureau group. She participated in the discussion meet and as the Purdue winner got to go on to the national discussion meet in Orlando in 2010.

“I really like being involved in Farm Bureau because it provides a way to network with other farmers and ag professionals throughout the state, provides some other learning opportunities that, you know, you never stop learning in your career, and also allows us to have some unique opportunities to participate in discussion meet and travel and just see other parts of agriculture throughout the country,” she said.

“I really wanted to apply for the Excellence in Ag Award this year to share my story and my background and also show young professionals in the industry some of the unique opportunities that you could have in this career besides being in production agriculture.”

In the next few years, O’Brien wants to grow her involvement in Farm Bureau even further.

“Winning a discussion meet would be amazing. I’ve participated in that several times,” she said. “And also attending a trip to D.C. on behalf of Farm Bureau, I’m passionate about helping on the policy side and communicating the importance of that to our legislators.

“I’ve attended several meetings where they’ve come into the area to talk to them. So, I think that’s really important that members continue to do that, and that’s one of the goals that I have for my future.”

Rising Star Award

Rachel Hyde, winner of the Rising Star Award, is the seventh generation farming on her family’s corn and soybean operation. She also helps her uncle raise about 300 head of club lambs, Hampshire, Crossbred and Shropshire sheep.

Full-time off the farm, she is a field sales marketing coordinator for Beck’s Hybrids.

“I am the third generation of our family to serve on the Hamilton County Farm Bureau Board. So, I serve on our Hamilton County Farm Bureau Board as the public relations coordinator, as well as serving on the Young Farmers & Ag Professionals Committee,” she said.

“I’ve also recently had the opportunity to get involved at the state level with our discussion meet competition for the Young Farmers & Ag Professionals group and was blessed to win the Indiana contest and then was blessed to represent our great state at the national level and make it onto the final four round of that discussion meet.

“At the national level, I was able to attend the women’s communication boot camp this past April out in Washington, D.C., and really enjoyed that time to hone in on my communication skills along with meeting a diverse group of women from all over the United States.”

Hyde said she wanted to apply for the first year of the Rising Star Award to learn more about herself and to share her passions for Farm Bureau.

“I set several goals for myself — from a level on our farm, to in my career, to within Farm Bureau — and I’m looking forward to the next five years of really developing out those goals,” she said.

“My career goals with Beck’s Hybrids are to continue to build out our field sales marketing team, so our goals are to encourage, equip and educate our dealers and internal sales staff on local marketing to really help more farmers succeed.

“Some of my goals here on the farming operation are to continue to develop my equipment skills, so continuing to perfect how I am setting up fields during the planting season, how I’m running the combine and grain cart during harvest and continuing to train more folks to be able to do those roles.

“I also haven’t been part of the grain marketing part on our operation, so I want to continue to learn more about that aspect of our farm.”

Winning the inaugural Rising Star Award means a ton personally, Hyde said.

“From a level of our farming operation and my family, they’ve all encouraged me to use my voice and share my agriculture story with others and this is another outlet for that,” she said.