Young Farmer and Rancher Update
Susan Wilkins, YF&R Chair
This winter has been a busy
one for the Young Farmers
Committee. That’s especially
exciting to me, as it feels
like our committee is really
beginning to grow. In January,
Jeremy and Danielle Grant
competed as West Virginia’s
Excellence in Ag Award contestants at the National
AFBF Convention.
In February, four young farmers attended the
Ag and Forestry Day at the Capitol. A week later,
a large group of young farmers and women’s
committee members attended the first ever
FUSION Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
During the conference we were able to attend a
variety of leadership development workshops
specifically geared towards young farmers,
participated in farm tours, and networked with
other young people.
We have plans coming up in March during
National Ag Week for
several of us to visit our
local schools and read
ag books to different
classrooms to promote ag
literacy. And we are already
exploring ideas for our 2015
Annual Spring Farm Tour.
We will be finalizing details
soon and hope to have a
date and location published
in the March Farm Bureau
magazine.
I will be happy to see this
winter come to an end and
spring arrive once more.
This year has definitely been
a rollercoaster of extremes.
After enjoying a balmy 55
degree Christmas, we were
quickly forced to return
10 West Virginia Farm Bureau News
to reality with a week of frigid temperatures and
winds that ranged from -10 to +20, not including
wind chills!
I always dream of the day I might be able to be
on the farm fulltime myself, but when I see my
dad and my brother put in 12 hour days in below
freezing temperatures, it makes me wonder if I’m
not just a little crazy to want to give up my offfarm job where I can hibernate in my cozy office if
it’s too cold to be outside!
It is often hard for me to come to grips with why
we have to face the snow and cold each year. But
I love this passage from the 55th chapter of Isaiah:
“The rain and snow come down from the heavens
and stay on the ground to water the earth. They
cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the
farmers and bread for the hungry.”
So, even in the snow and mud, God has a
reason. And come March and April, the
grass will seem that much greener.