Overview
The Young Ag Professionals (YAP) and Young Farmers and Ranchers (YF&R) Excellence in Agriculture Award competition is designed as an opportunity for young farmers and ranchers to earn recognition, while actively contributing and growing though 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.
Please know all applicant information is handled in strict confidence and is destroyed after judging is completed.
Eligibility
Ohio Farm Bureau utilizes the same eligibility guidelines as the American Farm Bureau for this award. The Excellence in Ag application is an abbreviated version of the national award application. Those applying for the Ohio Farm Bureau contest will be expected to complete the full AFBF Excellence in Ag application should they be selected to compete nationally.
- An applicant can be either an individual or a couple that is married or has similar legal rights under the law applicable to the state Farm Bureau organization. Applicants 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 state competition and shall not have reached his/her 36th birthday by the completion of the national competition. Competitors qualify at the time the state application is submitted and the completion of the national competition is the day awards are given out (Monday, January 12, 2026). [Meaning for the 2025 contest year, an applicant must be born on or after on or after January 13, 1990.]
- Applicant(s) must be in attendance on-site at the Winter Leadership Experience, February 7-8, 2025 to compete.
- 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 YAP competition per year.
- Past and present members of the AFBF Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee and/or their spouse are not eligible to compete.
- Retiring members of the Young Agricultural Professionals State Committee are eligible to apply in the year in which they are retiring.
- Members of the Ohio Farm Bureau Board of Trustees are eligible to apply for this award.
- Past Ohio YAP Outstanding Young Farmer Award 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.
- 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 and interns who were responsible for implementing any of the YF&R Competitive Events since January 1, 2019, at the state or national level are ineligible.