Contests and Great Opportunities for
Leadership Development, Cash and Prizes

2011 Photo Contest
The deadline has passed for this year. Thank you for your interest in this contest.

Click here to see this year's finalists.
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2011 Achievement Award
The deadline has passed for this year. Thank you for your interest in this contest.

Contest: KFB Annual Meeting - November 18, 2011 - Manhattan KS
 

To view the Achievement Award rules, click here.

To apply for the Achievement Award using Excel, click here. (click here to teach your older Excel software how to read newer Excel files)

Please note:
The fields in this application are locked, and you can only enter a set amount of characters. Please do not hit enter, only tab, otherwise, your spacing will be off. It is best to use the protected version of the documents in order to follow the guidelines and rules for the application.

To access Achievement Award scoring sheets, click here.

To access a list of Frequently Asked Questions, click here.

2011 Excellence in Agriculture Award

Contest: KFB Annual Meeting - November 18, 2011 - Manhattan KS
The deadline has passed for this year. Thank you for your interest in this contest.

To view the Excellence in Agriculture Award rules, click here. (click here to teach your older Excel software how to read newer Excel files)

To apply using Excel, click here.

To apply using a Web Form, click here.

Please note:
The fields in this application are locked, and you can only enter a set amount of characters. Please do not hit enter, only tab, otherwise, your spacing will be off. It is best to use the protected version of the documents in order to follow the guidelines and rules for the application.

To access Excellence in Agriculture Presentation Score Sheets, click here.

To access Excellence in Agriculture Application Score Sheets, go here.
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Deadline: December 30, 2011
 

For Rules, click here.

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2012 YF&R Discussion Meet
Deadline: December 30, 2011
 

Contest: KFB YF&R Leaders Conference - Friday, Jan. 27, 2012  - Wichita, KS

The discussion meet provides young producers the opportunity to discuss agricultural issues with other young farmers and ranchers while trying to build consensus and solve the issue at hand. 

For information about Discussion Meet training calls, click here.
 

To apply using Excel, click here (click here to teach your older Excel software how to read newer Excel files)

To apply using a Web Form, click here.

Click on a question below to access information to the related conference call.

Discussion Meet Questions

1.   Are the current and proposed Renewable Energy Policies beneficial to all segments of American agriculture?  Why or why not?

2.   How can we convince the public that the animal agriculture industry balances production efficiencies with the public’s expectations of animal care?

3.   Have farmers and ranchers effectively utilized social media to educate and influence the public?  What strategies can be implemented to expand the interaction between producers and consumers?

4.   How do we capitalize on the growing world demand for agricultural products?

5.   What role, if any, should agriculture play in addressing health and obesity issues?

Discussion Meet Downloadable Resources:

     Discussion Meet Contest Manual

     Appendix A - Tie Breaker sample

     Appendix B - Sample Rankings

     Topic Resource Materials

2012 Collegiate Discussion Meet.
Deadline: December 30, 2011
 

Discussion Meet Training Calls

To help prepare competitors for state and national discussion meets, AFBF will be hosting a series of conference calls this fall.  Each call will be one hour in length and will include a speaker that is an industry expert on one of the five discussion meet questions for the 2012 YF&R Discussion Meet in Honolulu, HI and the 2012 YF&R Collegiate Discussion Meet in Grand Rapids, MI.  There will also be ample time for questions and answers during the calls. 

Any interested individuals are encouraged to join the calls for any or all dates scheduled. 

Training Call - Discussion Meeting Question # 1: Are the current and proposed Renewable Energy Policies beneficial to all segments of American agriculture?  Why or why not?

Click here to listen to the September 13th Discussion Meet training conference call with Matt Erikson.

Click here (choose save when opening to view as a PowerPoint; click open to view as a webpage) to access the PowerPoint Matt Erikson provided.  Matt has updated his presentation after the conference call and also included a link where you can find more information on Renewable Fuel Standards. Keep in mind that a lot of the information that Matt shared includes numbers that change on a weekly basis with the markets.
 

Training Call - Discussion Meeting Question # 2: How can we convince the public that the animal agriculture industry balances production efficiencies with the public’s expectations of animal care?

Click here to listen to the September 27 Discussion Meet training conference call with Charlie Arnot, CEO, Center for Food Integrity.

Read this article written by Charlie and featured in Feedstuffs Foodlinks

Training Call - Discussion Meeting Question # 3: Have farmers and ranchers effectively utilized social media to educate and influence the public?  What strategies can be implemented to expand the interaction between producers and consumers?

Click here to listen to the August 30th Discussion Meet training conference call with Mace Thornton, Deputy Director of Public Relations at AFBF.

Click here to access the handout Mace provided following the conference call.

During the call more resources were mentioned that you may want to look at:

1. Ohio Farm Bureau’s Social Media Guide

2. Articles on the Yellow Fail Campaign:
    a. Yellow Tail wine donation to HSUS incurs farmers' wrath
    b. Farmers sway companies to end HSUS sponsorship

3. Information on Chris Chinn’s You Tube Experience:
    a. Censorship Threatens to jam the Social Media Highway
    b. Censoring Farmer Videos?  
    c. Farmer to YouTube: My pigs aren’t porn (page 8)

4. #moo, #oink Movement article (page 8)

If you’re interested in more information after listening to Charlie Arnot’s discussion, here are more opportunities to learn from the Center for Food Integrity. Click on a topic to register for webinars that spur your interest.

You can have access to these groundbreaking results by registering on the topics below:
• Friday, November 4 – Food Safety
• Tuesday, November 8 – Nutrition and Health
• Friday, November 11 – Food Animal Well-Being
• Friday, November 18 – Technology and Innovation

All 2011 webinars will be held from 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. CST.

An executive summary of the research results will be sent to all webinar participants. Register now to participate in a 2011 Consumer Trust Research webinar.
 

Other Resources to consider: 

* Video Recordings of the 2011 YF&R Discussion Meet  and 2011 Collegiate Discussion Meet are online and on our Facebook Page.