Choose your own Young Farmer adventure!

The 2026 Young Farmer Leaders Conference is heading to Kalamazoo Feb. 27 – March 1. A conference specifically designed with the future agriculture leaders’ interests in mind, YFLC creates a space for personal growth, sharing ideas and returning home stronger than how you arrived.

This experience gives you the ability to choose your own adventure. On Friday, members will explore Kalamazoo while creating valuable relationships; tour options include:

• Michigan Blueberries — See the blueberry process from bush to berry. Attendees will visit with the Michigan Blueberry Growers Association and a local blueberry farm. MBG is the largest grower-owned marketer of fresh and value-added processed cultivated blueberries in the world. MBG offers its members access to a proprietary breeding program, along with services and resources, ranging from technological, packaging, and logistical support to an all-inclusive food safety and social compliance program. Hear from blueberry industry experts and tour the breeding program, receiving station and shipping point. Brookside Farms is a sixth-generation Blueberry Farm in Southwest Michigan. Tour a packing facility and see how they adapt technology to their blueberry packing lines. You’ll also hear about how the farm implements that technology in the field and see a drone truck setup and demo. Tour the farm's retail store and bakery and learn about their direct-to-consumer business. Brookside offers a blueberry u-pick, a retail store, and a full bakery, selling pies, cookies, donuts and a host of blueberry products! Wrap up the day with a tour of a local winery and group dinner in Kalamazoo.
• Michigan Dairy — Learn more about Michigan’s dairy sector in this feed-to-fork tour with the Schaendorf cattle company. The Schaendorf family has been farming in West Michigan for three generations. In 1994, John Schaendorf and his family purchased an 80-acre dairy farm in Hopkins. In 2016, John and his son, Ben, began Schaendorf Cattle Co. The two realized the need for a transparent business model that was able to communicate food processes from start-to-finish to customers and distributors. The tour begins at the family’s dairy farm where participants will meet at the robotic milking parlor and get an inside look at the full-circle operation, including a dairy-beef facility, methane digesters, high oleic soybean roasting and grain storage, and custom farming operation. The tour will end at the Schaendorf Brewing Company, their farm-to-table restaurant and brew pub, where attendees will tour the brewery and eat a delicious meal sourced from the farm they toured.
• Grain Rescue — Get hands-on training with Safety and Technical Rescue Association (SATRA) on the dangers of flowing grain. Participants will experience at live-grain engulfment/rescue scenario, including important related topics such as safe bin entry, auger, entanglement and entrapment hazards. You’ll also work closely with local firefighters and EMS workers on trauma, bleeding control, CPR and emergency planning training. (For the engulfment exercise, be sure to wear clothes that can get dusty.)
• Give Back — Spend the day giving your time to local communities in need while volunteering, networking and learning more about local food systems. Tour participants will visit ValleyHUB, the largest network of buying and selling opportunities for local food in southwestern Michigan. ValleyHUB connects producers and buyers through local matchmaking and logistics, including aggregation, fresh-cut processing, marketing and delivery. Learn more about how they work with farmers and suppliers to add value to farm products.
  Participants will also spend some time volunteering at Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes. Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes began in 1982 through the collaborative efforts of several downtown churches and human service-minded individuals. Today, KLF has grown to be the largest charitable food assistance organization in Kalamazoo County and the largest independent food bank in Michigan. They serve over 38,000 individuals each year. and provide an average of 850 people with groceries each day, distributing food to over 95 different locations. After, the group will kick back and enjoy each other’s company at a local brewery. 
• Kalamazoo Air Zoo — Home to dozens of exhibits, amusement park-style rides, flight simulators and educational activities. Open to all ages, this experience will take you through several riveting historical exhibits featuring Amelia Earhart, the Air Zoo story, D-Day, Apollo 11, as well as women in aviation and space. There is something for everyone at this location!
• Explore downtown Kalamazoo area highlights within walking distance of the hotel including restaurants, boutiques and craft breweries.

From there, head back to the conference center and enjoy a 90’s county-fair-themed welcome reception. Shake the dust off your old showing gear and relive the glory days. Theme-appropriate outfits are highly encouraged!

Take this opportunity to attend breakout rooms that are meaningful to you. Have you been considering having an agritourism business on your farm? Are you interested in getting more involved in Young Farmer programs? Do you have questions about health insurance on the farm or public policy affecting agriculture? There’s a place for everyone at YFLC, so pick from dozens of breakout sessions created with you in mind!

This event is meant to bring Young Farmers ages 18-35 together to learn from each other, collaborate, and form connections spanning both the state and ag industries.

Registration runs Jan. 12-16. Let us know you’re interested, and we’ll connect you to your county Farm Bureau!

Choose to take that next step and see what the Young Farmer program can do for you!