2024-25 YF&R Achievement Award

Background

The South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation (SCFB) annually conducts a Young Farmers & Ranchers (YF&R) Achievement Award competition. Selection of the winning YF&R competitor is based on his/her efforts in production agriculture and leadership achievement. The ideal candidate(s) for the Achievement Award is an individual or couple involved in production agriculture with the majority of his/her gross income subject to farm and/or ranch risks.

Eligibility

• The ideal candidate(s) for the Achievement 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.
• 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. Applicant 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 (January 12, 2026)
• Applicant(s) must be in attendance on-site at the AFBF Annual Convention to compete nationally.
• 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 national YF&R Competition per year.
• Past and present members of the AFBF Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee and/or their spouse are not eligible to compete.
• Previous AFBF Achievement Award competitors are not eligible to compete. Past state YF&R Achievement Award winners 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.

Agreement

All applicants MUST agree to the following, in the event they are named a finalist or the State winner(s):

• The state winner must complete the AFBF AA application before the December 2025 deadline.
  The state winner must agree to compete in the 2026 AFBF Achievement Award competition, scheduled to take place at the AFBF Annual Convention held in Anaheim, CA, on January 9-13, 2026.
  The state winner must be willing, within reason, to accept Farm Bureau leadership and or assignments between the time they are announced as the State winner(s) and the time the AFBF AA application is due.

*Disclaimers for Awards & Competitions: Awards programs are subject to change. Out-of-town trips are based upon availability. Winner must agree to represent SCFB in the national competition to receive the prize package.

Entry Form & Application Guidelines

• Do not use applicant’s name, the name of his/her county, or any names that may bring about the recognition or identification of the applicant’s county beyond the entry form.
• The entry form and application must be completed in first person narrative (i.e. I, me, we, etc.) for questions 1-9 and 13. “A1”/“A2” may not be used for questions 1-9 and 13. Applicants must use “A1”/“A2” to denote each applicant for all of question 10-12.
• The Financial Success section must be typed and notarized; handwritten financial forms will be disqualified. If the notarization includes a county identifier such as county name or seal, the identifier needs to be blacked-out.
• 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 is an example of the information needed for the official online application. No emailed or mailed entry forms or applications will be accepted.
• 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.