Excellence in Ag Award 

The Excellence in Ag Award recognizes and rewards outstanding INFB Young Farmers & Ag Professionals members who do not derive the majority of their income from an owned agricultural operation and have not in any of the past three years, but who actively contribute and grow their involvement in Farm Bureau and agriculture. Applications must be submitted via the online application portal. 

Click here to access the online application portal

Basic eligibility requirements

• Must be a voting member of Indiana Farm Bureau.
• Between the ages of 18 and 35 as of Jan. 31, 2026.
• An Indiana resident.
• Applicant must not have derived a majority of his/her gross income from an owned production agriculture enterprise during any of the past three years.

Helpful entry form & application guidelines

• Do not use name, the name of county, or any names that may bring about the recognition or identification of the applicant’s county or state beyond the entry form.
  
• The entry form and application should be completed in first person narrative (i.e. I, me, we, us), but proper names of the applicant(s) may not be used. Couple applications should follow these instructions: For personal statements, put (A1) or (A2) at the beginning of the paragraph/sentence to denote which applicant is “speaking,” and for joint statements, simply use the word “we.” Applicants must use (A1)/(A2) to denote each applicant’s involvement for all of question 6.
• Do not use abbreviations or acronyms.

Presentation guidelines & tips (finalists only)

• Presentation will be an interactive, 25-minute presentation, in which the applicant has an opportunity to share the contents of his/her entire application in narrative form with a panel of three judges and the audience.
• The only visual means in which to deliver the information is through a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation.
• Verbal and presentation references to applicant name, state and county will be allowed during the presentation.
• No props (including notes), sound or video will be allowed during the presentation.

The state winner(s) will be honored at the Indiana Ag Gathering during the awards program.

Sponsors

The state winner(s) receive:

• $8,000 cash prize courtesy of Farm Credit Mid-America.
• $3,000 cash prize courtesy of Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance.
• All expenses paid trip to AFBF Annual Convention in Anaheim, California (Jan. 9-14, 2026).
• Two runners-up receive a $1,000 cash prize from Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance.

Deadline 

All applications must be submitted via the online portal on or before May 1 at 11:59 p.m. EST. Scanned or emailed entries will not be accepted or qualify as a submission. A copy of the Excellence in Ag application is available to download so that you may preview the questions. If you use this document, you must paste your answers into the online version of the application to submit. 

Click here to access the online application portal

The application is available to download, but applications must submitted using the online portal above.

• Excellence in Ag Award Application - PDF Version
• Excellence in Ag Application Rubric
• Excellence in Ag Presentation Rubric
  

Judging

All applications and presentations will be judged by the same set of judges.