Background
The Young Farmers (YF) Excellence in Agriculture Award competition is designed as an opportunity for young farmers and ranchers to earn recognition, while actively contributing and growing through their involvement in Farm Bureau and agriculture. Participants will be judged on their involvement in agriculture, leadership ability, and participation/involvement in Farm Bureau and other organizations (i.e., civic, service and community). The ideal candidate(s) for the Excellence in Agriculture Award is an individual or couple who does not have the majority of his/her gross income subject to normal production risk.
Information about the Excellence in Agriculture applicant is requested on the entry form. ALL INFORMATION IS HANDLED IN STRICT CONFIDENCE AND IS DESTROYED AFTER JUDGING IS COMPLETED.
Eligibility
- An applicant can be either an individual or a couple that is married. Applicant may choose to apply individually, rather than as a couple.
- Applicant(s) shall be a Farm Bureau member(s) between the ages of 18 and 35 in good standing with his/her county Farm Bureau. The individual or spouse/spousal-equivalent shall have reached his/her 18th birthday at the time he/she qualifies for the national competition and shall not have reached his/her 36th birthday by Jan. 31, 2026.
- Applicant(s) must not have derived a majority of his/her gross income from an owned production agriculture enterprise in any of the past three years.
Applicant(s) may only compete in one state YF Competition per year.
Past and present members of the AFBF Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee and/or their spouse are not eligible to
compete.
- Past state YF OYFF winners and/or previous AFBF Achievement Award competitors are not eligible to
compete.
- Previous AFBF Excellence in Agriculture Award competitors are not eligible to compete. Past state YF Excellence in
Agriculture competitors are eligible if they have not previously competed at the national level.
- Current employees or agents of county, state and/or the American Farm Bureau organizations and their affiliates are not eligible to compete. An affiliate is defined as an entity owned or controlled in whole or in part by another entity through, for example, ownership (including partial ownership) or positions on the board of directors. Past employees who were responsible for implementing any of the YF Competitive Events at the state or national level are ineligible.
- Each county may submit one entry to be considered for the state recognition and must use the KFBF entry form and application.
Entry Form & Application Guidelines
- Do not use applicant's name, the name of his/her state or county, or any names that may bring about the recognition or identification of the applicant's county beyond the entry form. The written versions of the application have a search feature to locate any identifiers. Verbal and presentation reference to applicant's name, state or county will be allowed during your presentation for personalization of presentation.
- The entry form and application must be completed in first person narrative (i.e. I , me, we, etc.) for questions 1-5. "A1"/"A2" may not be used for questions 1-5. Applicants must use "A1"/"A2" to denote each applicant for all of question 6.
- Do not use abbreviations or acronyms unless it has been spelled out once with the abbreviation in parentheses behind it. For example, United States Department of Education (USDE). AFBF, FB, and YF&R are acceptable to use throughout the application.
- The attached entry form and application is the information needed for the official online application. Authorized state representatives will have access to the online portal for official state submission. No emailed or mailed entry forms will be accepted.
- County Farm Bureaus have permission to reproduce the attached entry form for state-level competition or as a recruitment tool.
- It will be up to the judges' descretion to deduct points if applicants include activities before they were 18.
Note: Disregard of the guidelines will result in disqualification of the application.
Presentation Guidelines
- The presentation will be an interactive, 25-minute presentation in which the applicant(s) has an opportunity to share the contents of his/her/their entire application in narrative form with a panel of three judges and the audience.
- Applicant(s) will have 25 minutes to present on the topics addressed in the application and address questions from the judges. Applicants will be notified by the timekeeper when 10 minutes are remaining and again when five minutes are remaining. Each judge will be prepared to ask at least one question. At 25 minutes, time will be called and the applicant’s time in front of the judges will conclude even if judges have not been able to ask their questions. It will be up to the applicant(s) to determine how they use this time. If the answers to the judges’ questions are complete before time is called, the room moderator will call time.
- The only visual means in which to deliver the information is through a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation. The applicant(s) needs to submit their presentation on a USB flash drive during the Excellence in Agriculture Competitor Orientation. Once the presentation has been downloaded onto the laptop, it cannot be changed. A computer, LCD projector, screen and one slide advancer remote will be provided. All presentations must be formatted to work on a PC. Contestants will not be allowed to use their own computer.
- Verbal and presentation references to applicant(s) name, state and county will be allowed during the presentation.
- No props (including notes), sound or video of any kind will be allowed during the presentation.
- Applicants and their state coordinators are not allowed to view other presentations until after they have completed their own.
Application Judging
- All applications will be judged prior to the State Young Farmer Summer Outing, by three representatives from the industry. These are the only judges that will be reviewing and scoring the applications.
- All judges will use the application rubric to score the applications.
- The following breakdown of points will be used for the application:
Questions 2-4 180 points 45.0%
*Ag Involvement, Impact on Ag and Issues Facing Ag
Goals 40 points 10.0%
Farm Bureau Experience 90 points 22.5%
Other Leadership Experience 80 points 20.0%
Application Form 10 points 2.5%
* Writing should be clear, descriptive and free of grammatical errors.
MAXIMUM POINTS 400 points 100% (80% of Total Score)
Presentation Judging
- All competitors will present during the competition at the KFBF Young Farmer Summer Outing on July 11th.
- Competitors will be randomly divided into different rooms to present to a panel of three judges who represent the industry. Each room will have a different set of judges who will complete a judge’s orientation prior to round one.
- All judges will use the same presentation rubric to score the presentations.
- The following breakdown of points will be used for the presentation:
Delivery of Presentation 30 points 30%
Content of Presentation 40 points 40%
Responses to Questions 30 points 30%
MAXIMUM POINTS 100 points 100% (20% of Total Score)
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Applicants will give their presentation again to a set of three judges. All competitors will present to the same set of judges during the contest at the Young Farmer Summer Outing.
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The winner and finalists of the competition will be determined based on the combined application presentation scores.
Deadline
The entry form and application must be submitted on or before 11:59 p.m. ET May 9, 2025. The entry form and application must be completed in this format to be considered. Written entry forms and applications will not be accepted.