There was no drive home to Indiana in a brand new pickup for the two Hoosier couples participating this week in American Farm Bureau’s Young Farmer and Rancher contests. John and Marybeth Feutz of Gibson County, competing in Excellence in Ag, and Orville and Jessica Haney of Kosciusko County competing for the Achievement Award made the top ten but that was the end of the road.
Haney says just winning Indiana was a huge accomplishment.
“It was one of the biggest honors of our lives. We’re just really happy to be here and then to be named top 10 in the nation was a big surprise.”
John Feutz said “We’re just thrilled to be involved. It’s been a great experience and we’re glad to be top 10 in the country and that’s saying a lot when figure how big Farm Bureau is nationwide. So to be in the top 10 is great.”
His wife Marybeth credited strong Indiana support for their success at getting to the top ten.
“We had a packed house for our presentation and it was so wonderful to see so many smiling, friendly faces that were there to support us.”
She says the support at the public presentation makes a difference.
“Absolutely. With our theatre background we absolutely love playing to a full house. There’s so much positive energy and we really can feed back on that positive energy and channel that back into our presentation.”
Young farmers will take a lot from the competition experience, and Orville and Jessica told HAT it starts right at the application process.
“The application itself is 15-page odyssey of your goals and dreams and aspirations, and it’s a very nice outline of where you started and where you’re at now and where you want to go in the future. Just the practice of filling that thing out, they’re going to benefit from that.”
Jessica agreed, telling HAT, “Hands down the application should be the thing that you enjoy most, getting your farm history down, writing your goals, brainstorming where are we going with this, where have we been. Seeing it all on paper is just so fulfilling.”[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2013/01/2013-YFandR-top-tens-from-Indiana.mp3|titles=2013 YFandR top tens from Indiana]
Congratulations to both couples. Listen to the HAT interviews conducted in Nashville just after their final presentation/interview of the competition:
John and Marybeth:[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2013/01/John-and-Marybeth-Feutz.mp3|titles=John and Marybeth Feutz]Orville and Jessica Haney:[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2013/01/Orville-and-Jessica-Haney.mp3|titles=Orville and Jessica Haney]