Derek and Shannon Haigwood of Newport have received the Arkansas Farm Bureau’s 2015 Young Farmers & Ranchers Achievement Award.
The Haigwoods, a fourth-generation row-crop farm family, grow soybeans, rice, corn and cotton on 3,130 acres. Derek, 35, and Shannon, 34, have one child and want to leave a sustainable farming legacy for their son.
“I’m passionately involved with making sure my son has the tools necessary to farm. No one is going to take better care of the ground that I farm,” Derek Haigwood said. “It’s where I make my living, so who better to protect it than the farmers? Receiving this recognition is an incredible honor.”
Derek served as Jackson County Farm Bureau president, vice president and secretary. He’s active with the United Soybean Board, United States Soybean Export Council and USA Rice Federation. Shannon serves on the county Women’s Committee and served on the Annual Meeting Planning Committee this year.
The Haigwoods won a $40,000 gift card to use toward the purchase of a new 2016 General Motors vehicle courtesy of Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Company.
The runners-up in the competition were Jeremy and Tracie Kitchens of Lewisville, who raise cattle and swine, and Jamey and Sara Allen of Prattsville, who raise cattle and operate a gate and panel company. Each couple won $1,000.
Arkansas Farm Bureau presented the Young Farmers & Ranchers Achievement Award and others at its 81st annual convention at the Marriott Hotel and Convention Center in downtown Little Rock on Dec. 3. Other award recipients are listed below.
Young Farmers and Ranchers Discussion Meet
Jake Haak, with AFB president Randy Veach and vice president Rich Hillman
Jake Haak, 35, of Gentry won the YF&R Discussion Meet, which provides a forum for young farm leaders to demonstrate their verbal and problem-solving presentation skills while discussing their views on issues affecting agriculture.
Haak is chief financial officer for the Rogers School District and helps on his parents’ dairy farm. He won $7,000 toward the purchase of a Polaris All-Terrain Vehicle courtesy of Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Co. and $2,500 from Farm Bureau Bank.
There were seven competitors in the Discussion Meet.
Young Farmers and Ranchers Excellence in Agriculture
Grant and Heather Keenen, with AFB president Randy Veach and vice president Rich Hillman
Grant and Heather Keenen of Washington County won the Excellence in Agriculture award, recognizing young farmers involved in agriculture but who get the majority of income off the farm.
The Keenens have a beef cattle, wheat, corn and soybean farm outside of Farmington. Off the farm, Grant, 35, manages the Pat and Willard Walker Charolais cattle ranch, while Heather works in the poultry industry managing farm appraisals in four states. The Keenens have a 2-year-old daughter.
The Keenens won a Polaris Ranger All-Terrain Vehicle courtesy of Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company and $2,500 courtesy of Publishing Concepts Inc.
All YF&R award winners also earned expense-paid trips to the American Farm Bureau Federation national conference in Orlando in January, where they’ll compete for national awards.
Other awards
President’s Award
Craighead Country Farm Bureau president Josh Cureton, with AFB president Randy Veach and vice president Rich Hillman
Craighead County is the state’s top county Farm Bureau organization for the third consecutive year. County President Josh Cureton accepted the award.
Counties competing for the President’s Award must earn a Gold Star in each of 10 categories — membership acquisition, organization, public relations, commodity services, governmental affairs, women’s activities, Young Farmers & Ranchers activities, member services, safety and youth — and be a top scorer in their respective membership category.
Other finalists were Cross, Stone, Jackson and Conway counties.
Membership Retention Award
The Membership Retention Award went to Monroe County.
The award goes to the county with the highest membership retention percentage in the state. Monroe County had a retention rate of 95.89 percent. County Farm Bureau president Lonnie Medford and agency manager Curtis Clatworthy received the award.
Outstanding Ag Educator
2015 Outstanding Ag Educator Award winner Rodney Wiedower of Greenbrier High School
Arkansas Farm Bureau recognized Rodney Wiedower of Greenbrier High School as the state’s Outstanding Ag Educator, which recognizes a high school agriculture education instructor for their efforts in teaching young people about agriculture, leadership and involvement in FFA. Greenbrier’s program includes more than 400 students in ag education and FFA. Through his leadership, the program has had numerous students become state FFA winners in Career Development Event contests.
Greenbrier High School is well-known for its development of student leaders. The present state FFA president, Sam Harris, graduated from Greenbrier High School. Wiedower has been a vocational agriculture teacher for 29 years. He raises beef cattle.
2015 AgVocate of the Year
Lindsey Triplett, with AFB president Randy Veach and vice president Rich Hillman
Arkansas Tech University student Lindsey Triplett received AFB’s social media award for her agricultural advocacy efforts, earning her the 2015 AgVocate of the Year award.
Triplett, 20, from Conway, is an agricultural business major, with an emphasis in public relations at ATU.
Launched last year, the Arkansas AgVocate program is an effort to help individuals tell the story of agriculture using social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Participants receive points for sharing ag-oriented content, recruiting new AgVocates and when their followers “like,” comment or “retweet” posts. Triplett’s posts reached more than 52,000 people.
The prepared content that AgVocates receive via email and share to their networks helps inform people on current agricultural issues and dispel common agriculture myths. The Agvocate of the Year award recognizes the individual who is participating in the program and doing the best job of meeting these criteria.
Main photo: Arkansas Farm Bureau president Randy Veach (left) and vice president Rich Hillman (right) present the 2015 Young Farmers and Ranchers Achievement Award to Shannon and Derek Haigwood.
All photos courtesy of Arkansas Farm Bureau.
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