County Young Farmer chairs’ top-five for February

Attention, county Farm Bureau Young Farmer chairs: Here’s five fresh, need-to-know dates, events and programming tips headed your way:

Engage in your district discussion meet

Discussion meets are an opportunity to expose new members to see what Farm Bureau’s all about! Whether you participate in the discussion or just recruit some interested members, discussion meets will grow your network and build your Farm Bureau involvement. 

In addition to Young Farmer regular members, remember to invite Collegiate Farm Bureau members. Work with your CAM to pull names of Collegiate members in your county and personally invite them to attend and/or participate in your discussion meet. It’s a great opportunity to introduce them to other Young Farmers and gain experience for the Collegiate discussion meet.

Visit the MFB website to learn more about the competition, including dates, times and locations. 

YF Award apps are due on March 6

Our Young Farmer Awards recognize up-and-coming leaders in Farm Bureau in four categories. Applications are available on the Michigan Farm Bureau website. 

Unsure of which award category to apply for? Find your fit here. 

March is Reading Month

Ask Collegiate and Young Farmer members to participate in your county’s March is Reading Month activities. Many county Farm Bureaus recruit members to read to elementary classes. It’s a great way to include them in a county activity while building relationships with county members. 

Harvest for All contest restarted Jan. 1

This is a great time of year to look at your upcoming activities and find a hunger-relief tie-in: collecting food items, raising funds at a county event or maybe working with a local hunger-relief organization to gather volunteers and hand out meals. 

Harvest for All is a yearlong campaign created by the American Farm Bureau Federation that encourages Farm Bureau members across the country to work together to help fight hunger.

Host a pre-planting get-together

Late winter is a great season to invite Young Farmers out to someone’s shop for a pre-planting party. Whether it’s a low-key euchre tournament, tossing some corn hole or hosting a hearty potluck, everyone could use a little social boost before heading out into the fields.

It’s also a great time to introduce the best way to stay in touch and send updates from the tractor cab, whether it’s through personal Tik Toks or a Facebook group.