Kent County Farm Bureau's 2025 was hopping! Besides our usual programs and our participation in Michigan Farm Bureau (MFB) and American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) programs, we added 5 new initiatives (*).
In January, we sent 8 people to San Antonio for the AFBF Annual Convention. We not only got to be inspired and educated, but we also got to meet some longhorn cattle!
*In February, we sponsored the Wonder Workshop activities at the Rapid River Farm exhibit at the Grand Rapids Children's Museum. We shared our knowledge and perspective as people working in ag in Kent County with their programming experts, who designed several weeks of engaging activities on apples, dairy, corn, soil, and pollinators.
In February/March we sent 10 people to Growing Together, an MFB conference aimed at Young Farmers and people involved in Promotion and Education (this year, each group will have its own conference--Voice of Ag, and Young Farmer Leaders).
In March we also sent 2 people to the AFBF Young Farmer and Rancher Leader's Conference in Denver.
In April, we held our annual Legislative Breakfast at Robinettes. It is always a great opportunity to bring together so many legislators to hear from our farmers about their experiences, their frustrations, and their needs. This year, we were pleased that so many legislative leaders attended in person: U.S. Cong. Hillary Scholten, MI Senate Majority Leader Sen. Winnie Brinks, and MI House Majority Floor Leader Bryan Posthumus. And it was great to have the new MFB President Ben La Cross there to open the event. There wound up being two themes to the discussion: the effects of always-expanding bureaucracy and the high stakes of farm stress.
April also saw Board Member Nicole Zaagman graduate from MFB's Academy for Political Leadership.
*In May, the Farm Kid Safety Day made farm safety fun. Rural Rescue trainers came in and taught around 60 kids and a dozen adult volunteers about tractor safety, tool safety, flowable grain awareness, first aid, chemical decontamination, and animal handling. We will offer this again in 2027!
In July and August we expanded our involvement with our youngest people in agriculture. At the Kent County Youth Fair, we not only bought projects at the large animal auction, we also bought some small exhibits to give away at the County Annual and *ran an Ag Fact Scavenger Hunt that had over 80 kids running from barn to barn to gather enough facts to win an ice cream cone. And we got to present the Kent County Youth Agricultural Association with a check for $250,000 through our matching grant--over the two years of the matching grant, they've been able to raise over $2.8 million.
In August we were able to expand our Tire Recycling Day to two days, and to include regular as well as agricultural tires. Between our members and Wilbur-Ellis Sparta customers, we were able to remove 3,359 tires from the environment! We are grateful for Wilbur-Ellis Sparta for their partnership, EGLE for giving us a Scrap Tire Grant, and Environmental Rubber Recycling for taking tires on the rim.
The Grant and Scholarship Committee met and awarded 5 scholarships to Kent County students. They awarded Sparta FFA a split grant: $5,000 out right, and then a $5,000 matching grant (which they've leveraged into a second $5,000 matching grant!).
At some point our Youth Farmer Co-Chair Allan Robinette was selected for the State Young Farmer Committee.
In the beginning of September we welcomed members, MFB President Ben LaCross, legislators, and community leaders to our County Annual Meeting. We got to hear from Young Farmer Olivia Caine about how people she met at the discussion meet at the 2024 State Annual Meeting led to her raising a market goat that won Grand Champion Market Goat at the Youth Fair. Member Ned Stoller talked about his work to figure out adaptations for farmers who experience illness or injury and showed off some low-tech and high-tech options. And, perhaps most fun, we got to watch artist Martina Hahn produce a speed painting on the theme of agriculture, which we gave away to a member at the end of the meeting. On the Board of Directors, Mark Richmond, Aaron Phelps, and Young Farmer Co-Chair Noah Roth wrapped up their terms and we welcomed Scott Drown and YF Co-Chair Emily Kropf. At the re-organization meeting, Bruce Klamer and Bryan Heffron were re-elected as President and Vice-President, and Nicole Zaagman was elected as Third Member.
*At the end of September we welcomed international speaker Ian Hill and his Empowering Minds program to Kent County. At every event this year, Board Member John Schut has made sure that we talked openly about mental health struggles of farmers, so when we learned of a program that addressed rural mental health, we leaned in. We held a breakfast for community leaders and a dinner for Farm Bureau members from Kent, Ottawa, Allegan, Barry, and Ionia counties. Hill spoke with community leaders about communicating with each other so that they know which organizations are building which strengths in our citizens, and about supporting the growth of community organizations so all citizens can be plugged in and connected somewhere. In the evening, Hill held a First Identifier training that brought attendees through a process of identifying when someone in their circle is struggling and gave them simple conversational tools to show support and guide them to professional help. It was a powerful night--and a hopeful one.
December was a busy, busy month!
First there was the State Annual Meeting, where member-delegates from across the state meet to vote on the policy recommendations that will guide MFB for the next year. We are grateful for Delegate Chair Renee McCauley and the 12 other Kent County members who took time away from their operations to do this important work.
*Next was the Kent County Ag Teacher Networking and Professional Development Day. The Promotion and Education Committee noted this summer that all 5 of our FFA chapters either had someone new to teaching ag, new to FFA, or a new teacher to their program and they made supporting our Kent County ag teachers a priority. On December 12, we welcomed 6 teachers to the barn at Dairy Discovery for a day of trainings and conversation. Montague FFA's Kate Feuerstein focused on how to work with your administration, retired FFA Advisor John Schut led a roundtable that helped the teachers get to know each other and each other's programs better, and then Michigan FFA's Kevin Nugent did some training about contests and contest resources.
*The final event of the year was so big we needed eight community partners to make it happen (Kent County Road Commission, Grand Valley State University and Calvin University Wildlife Biology students, Hunters Feeding Michigan, CHOICE ONE Bank, West Walker Sportsman's Club, Kent Conversation District, and Reeman Farm Equipment)! We sponsored a Doe Pole Contest. Our Kent County hunters are great at shooting bucks, but to help bring the herd to a healthier doe:buck ratio, we need to manage the ladies. So instead of rewarding the biggest rack, we rewarded the heaviest doe. Twenty-one individuals and teams entered the competition, bringing in at least 51 deer from Kent, Ionia, Ottawa, and Allegan counties. Over half of the deer were donated and the meat will provide nutritious, high-protein meals for West Michigan families.
Phew. Thank you to our members for helping make 2025 such an amazing year. We're looking forward to another great year in 2026!