Young Farmers attend Leadership Training Conference

Six young farmers from the Livingston County Farm Bureau attended the 2008 Leaders Conference hosted by Greenstone Farm Credit Services and Michigan Farm Bureau at the Holiday Inn in Big Rapids, February 22nd - 24th.

The conference, designed to develop leadership and management skills, presented the attendees with a vast variety of topics and speakers.  At the Friday night banquet, James Schiller - President & CEO of GreenStone Farm Credit Services, addressed the group.  Saturday evening the group had the pleasure of hearing from Wayne Wood - President of Michigan Farm Bureau.  Keynote speakers were Chad Hymas, Kevin Dhuyvetter, and Terry Kastens.  Hymas is a motivational speaker whose life at the age of 27 was changed dramatically by an accident that left him a quadriplegic.  Dhuyvetter and Kastens are both Professors from Kansas State University working in the Department of Agricultural Economics.  Workshops on Saturday covered topics from Livestock to Farm Emergency Preparedness to Health/Retirement Savings and Immigration.

Those attending from Livingston County were:  Jeanette Smith, Steve Roeske, Josiah Bennett, Joseph Stinson, Bethany Bennett, and Autumn Rose Bennett.