2010 Young Farmer Achievement Award
Information and Application

This Is Your Opportunity To Be Recognized As Indiana's Top Young Farmer

2009 Indiana Farm Bureau Young Farmer Achievement Award Winners
Joe & Angela Mann, Putnam County

Purpose
The Young Farmer Achievement Award is designed to recognize young Farm Bureau members for outstanding achievement in their farming operation and for their leadership abilities.

Eligibility 

• Applicants must be Indiana residents and voting members of Indiana Farm Bureau, Inc.
• Applicants must be actively engaged in farming or ranching in Indiana with a majority of income derived from production agriculture.
• Applicants and spouse, if married, shall be between the ages of 18 and 35 years of age. Applicants shall not have reached their 36th birthday as of January 31, 2011.
• State Young Farmer Committee members are not eligible to compete while serving a term on the committee.
• Past and present AFBF Young Farmer and Rancher Committee members and spouses are not eligible to compete.

Judging
A panel of qualified judges will meet to select three state finalists. Of these three finalists, a state winner will be selected.

• All applications will remain confidential from time of submission until they are returned to the applicants following the announcement of the winner. Information contained in the application is considered confidential, unless disclosed by the applicant.
• Each application will be identified with a code number. This code number will identify the applications until after the five finalists are announced. The judges are not revealed the names of individual applicants until after the five finalists are announced.
• Values used in judging the applications will be as follows:
    * Farm Operation 25%
    * Growth & Financial Progress of Operation 35%
    * Farm Bureau Leadership 25%
    * Other Leadership 15%
• Judging is based on the information provided on the application by the applicants.

The Top 3 Finalists Will:

• Be asked to participate in an interview.
• The interview will be used as a verification/clarification of the information on the application, and may affect the final top 3 ranking.
• The interviews will be 20 –30 minutes in length.
• The same qualified judges will also conduct the interview.
• Agree to compete in the American Farm Bureau Young Farmer and Rancher Achievement Award competition.

Entry Form and Application Guidelines

• Use of personal names, state names, county names or any names that might bring recognition or identification of the location of the applicant will be terms of disqualification. The AFBF Achievement Award Judges will not review applications in violation of this requirement.
• The entry form and application must be in 10 point type with the universal font Times New Roman, typed or printed.
• Do not use abbreviations or acronyms.
• No additional pages can be added to the application.
• Letters of recommendation, scrapbooks or other visual additions will be terms for disqualification.

Examples of appropriate wording and inappropriate wording to use are as follows: