2015 American Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers and Ranchers Discussion Meet Winner Sean Arians speaks at the Illinois Farm Bureau Annual Meeting in Chicago in December. (Cyndi Cook/Illinois Farm Bureau)
By Carrie Muehling
SAN DIEGO – Area young people representing the state of Illinois at the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Annual Meeting in San Diego are coming home with some prestigious awards.
The 2015 winner of the AFBF Young Farmers and Ranchers Discussion Meet is Sean Arians of Normal. Arians farms in Woodford County and is a member of the Woodford County Farm Bureau. He said the contest required a lot of research and cooperative spirit.
“It’s all about a cooperative attitude and trying to find the middle ground. Talking about potential solutions to the issue and then also, really being able to summarize that in a closing statement,” said Arians, who works as a marketing manager for Precision Planting.
Arians said the skills he honed for the competition are important to the future of agriculture.
“I think at the end of the day, we have a lot of issues in this industry, and I’m not saying they’re bad or good. But the point of the matter is that one person alone or one industry, representative or group alone cannot solve these problems. I think we have to take down the walls, work with other states, work with other organizations, and be able to collaborate to really broaden our message, make sure we take that message where it needs to go, and solve the problems we need to solve,” said Arians.
In another Young Farmers and Ranchers contest, Matt and Jenna Kilgus of Fairbury were named runners up for the Achievement Award.
“Along with the help of a lot of the Illinois Farm Bureau staff and others in the state that have helped us along the way, or past recipients of the award, we basically groomed it for the nationals and spent a few weeks working on that and then we also went through some mock interviews with those that have had some national experience and those that know our operation and were able to give pointers and get us ready for the national contest,” said Matt Kilgus.
The Kilguses competed against 35 other farmers and ranchers from across the nation.
“Every one of them was deserving of this award. We’re just very humbled to be able to be in that top four. It’s an amazing experience. We’ve met some incredible people while we were out here and we’re able to network and have met a lot of new people that we already have plans to get together this summer and bounce ideas off each other and network in a way that only Farm Bureau allows you to network that way,” said Jenna Kilgus of Kilgus Farmstead.
Carrie Muehling can be reached at [email protected].
