Overview

The Ohio Farm Bureau Young Ag Professionals (YAP) Outstanding Young Farmer and American Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers and Ranchers (YF&R) Achievement Award 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. Selection of the winning competitor is based on his/her efforts in production agriculture and leadership achievement. The ideal candidate(s) for this award is an individual or couple involved in production agriculture with a majority of his/her gross income subject to farm and/or ranch risks.

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 Outstanding Young Farmer application is an abbreviated version of the national award application for the Achievement Award. Those applying for the Ohio Farm Bureau contest will be expected to complete the full AFBF Achievement Award 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 be actively engaged in farming and/or ranching, with the majority of his/her gross income coming from production agriculture. Applicant(s) must have at least three years of financial records showing that the majority of income came from production agriculture.
• 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 Excellence in Ag Award winners and/or previous AFBF Excellence in Ag competitors are not eligible to compete.
• Previous AFBF Achievement 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.

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 state 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 and 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 are examples of the information needed for the official online application. Authorized state Farm Bureau representatives will have access to the online portal for official state submission. No emailed or mailed entry forms will be accepted.
• State 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’ discretion to deduct points if applicants include activities before they were 18.
  Note: Disregard of the guidelines will result in disqualification of the application.

Note: Once you start the JotForm application, you are unable to save your work and return later. Click here to download a pdf version of the application for reference prior to starting your form JotForm application. Only applications submitted through this JotForm will be considered for the award.

 Application Judging

• All applications will be judged prior to the Winter Leadership Experience by three representatives from the industry. These are the only judges who will be reviewing and scoring the applications.
• Judges do not receive the first page of the application which provides the applicants' contact information. 
• All judges will use the application rubric to score the applications.
• The top three applications will be selected to participate in an interview with the judges who reviewed the applications. 
• Interviews will be up to 20 minutes in length and are intended to evaluate the competitor’s command of the farm/ranch business and financials, familiarity with the contents of the application, and appreciation for the value of Farm Bureau (see rubric). In addition to the 5 points allocated for the interview, judges may alter scores from other sections based on what they learn during the interview.

The following breakdown of points will be used for the application: 

Prizes

The top three applicants receive a finalist award package valued at over $1,200. The overall award winner receives an award package valued at over $10,000.

Award Winner

• Expense-paid trip to the Ohio Farm Bureau Annual Meeting and Kick-Off Luncheon in December (Four Guest Tickets included)
• Expense-paid trip to the American Farm Bureau Annual Convention as the national competitor. January 9-13, 2026 in Anaheim, California
• Media package
• $3,000 cash prize of choice

Award Finalists

• Expense-paid trip to the Winter Leadership Experience Feb. 7-8, 2025
• Embroidered Ohio Farm Bureau Soft Shell Jacket
• $250 Cash Award 

Applications Due: December 20, 2024 by 5 p.m.

Questions? Contact yap@ofbf.org

If selected as a finalist, part of your award package includes an embroidered Ohio Farm Bureau soft shell jacket. Please reference the links below to view the jacket and respective size guides size guides to determine your preferred jacket size. 

Men’s Jacket  |  Men’s Size Guide

Women’s Jacket |  Women’s Size Guide

5. FINANCIAL SUCCESS: Part 1- Using the grid below, please show your debt-to-asset ratio, including farm/ranch/personal debts and assets for each year requested.