County Farm Bureaus in the central Upper Peninsula have been busy flexing in recent weeks, engaging new leaders and hosting visitors from Michigan State University.
Member delegates from both Menominee and Hiawathaland Farm Bureaus recently met with a trio of leaders from MSU’s College of Ag & Natural Resources, Extension and AgBioResearch. The confabs stemmed from Farm Bureau delegates at last year’s State Annual Meeting expressing frustration at the delay in filling a long-vacant ag agent position for the central U.P.
Visiting from MSU were Director of Government and Stakeholder Relations Patrick Cudney; AgBioResearch Director George Smith; and Quentin Tyler, director of MSU Extension and Senior Associate Dean for Outreach and Engagement.
Brock Farms near Daggett hosted the visitors in Menominee County; the same trio heard out Hiawathaland growers at Hansen’s Seed Potato farm near Cornell.
“Our members got a lot off their chest,” reports U.P. Regional Manager Craig Knudson. “They really appreciated the representatives from MSU coming up here and listening to them.”
Other News from the North
Last week Dean Shepeck (pictured below) was elected to assume the presidency of the Menominee County Farm Bureau, succeeding longtime leader Pete Kleiman, who last month joined the MFB Board of Directors.
Shepeck operates a small farm outside Menominee and works as a herd manager at a local dairy. The longtime Menominee County leader is a former member of MFB’s State Young Farmer Committee and recently hosted a Breakfast on the Farm event.
Also in Menominee, new Young Farmer chair Matt Granskog wrangled enough peers to represent the county Farm Bureau in the local Independence Day parade, cruising the main drag in a tractor-drawn hay wagon.
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