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.  If you applied for the Excellence in Ag Award in 2020 or 2021, you can access your previous application by logging in with your existing Reviewr account.

Click here to access the new online application portal

Click here to access a previous application 

Basic eligibility requirements

• Must be a voting member of Indiana Farm Bureau.
• Between the ages of 18 and 35 as of Jan. 31, 2023.
• An Indiana resident.
• Applicant must not have derived a majority of his/her 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 must be completed in first person narrative (i.e. I, me, we, etc.) for questions I-V. Applicants must use “A1” and “A2” to denote each applicant for all of question VI.
• Do not use abbreviations or acronyms.

 Presentation guidelines & tips (final three competitors 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.

Three state finalists will be honored at the State Convention during the awards program.

Sponsors

The state winner and spouse 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 San Juan, Puerto Rico - Jan. 6-11 (pending COVID-19 restrictions at the time of event).
• 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. Members who have completed applications in the past are still able to access their old applications through the previous portal with their log-in credentials, however, they will have to create a new account in our new portal and copy and paste their application if they choose to resubmit. 

Click here to access the NEW online application portal

Click here to access the PREVIOUS online application portal

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

Downloadable assets:

• Excellence in Ag Application
• Excellence in Ag Signature Page
• Excellence in Ag Application Rubric
• Excellence in Ag Presentation Rubric

Judging

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

Meet Ryan and Marie Hilton, the 2021 YF&AP Excellence in Agriculture Award winners.