Sullivan County Couple to Represent Indiana Farm Bureau on National Committee

Sullivan County’s Justin and Alli McKain have been appointed to serve on the American Farm Bureau’s Young Farmer & Rancher Committee for the next two years. While serving on the national committee, the McKains will help evaluate and update AFBF’s Young Farmer & Rancher long-term plan and serve as a contact for several state young farmer groups. They will also assist with executing Young Farmer & Rancher competitive events at the annual AFBF convention.

Alli McKain says of being selected, “I think at this point we will certainly be learning a little bit more about what our opportunities at the national level will be, but for myself and Justin, we’re really excited to represent Indiana Farm Bureau at the national level and to take the leadership skills that we have acquired and, at the end of the day, advocate for rural America and agriculture.

The McKains served on Indiana Farm Bureau’s Young Farmer & Ag Professionals Committee for two years and Justin says it was a fantastic experience.

“It really opened up our eyes to the importance of our demographic being involved in this organization and the response we get as we start talking about public policy and speaking with our legislators are making that broad impact for agriculture.”

Justin continued, saying, “We have kids now and we look at what life do we want our kids to have and what can we pass on to them and the sustainability of agriculture. I look at this as an opportunity to progress that to a national level and think about the opportunities we’re going to have to meet with legislators on the national level, but also interact with young farmers across the nation and what ideas can we gather from these opportunities and bring back to our state.”

The McKain family lives in Shelburn, Indiana where they farm corn and soybeans as the third generation on the family farm. They also recently started a 10-acre plot, researching high management soybeans. Off the farm, Justin works as a precision agronomist for The Equity, a large ag retailer based in Illinois. Alli works as the district coordinator and agriculture educator for the Sullivan County Soil and Water Conservation District.