Justin and Alli McKain, former District 7 Indiana Farm Bureau State Young Farmer & Ag Professionals Committee representatives, have been appointed to serve on the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Young Farmer & Rancher Committee for 2021-2023. The McKains, from Sullivan County, served on INFB’s YF&AP Committee from 2018-2020 and represented Clay, Daviess, Greene, Knox, Owen, Martin, Sullivan and Vigo counties.
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 also will assist with executing Young Farmer & Rancher competitive events at the annual AFBF convention and provide programming advice for the Young Farmer & Rancher Leadership Conference.
“Continuing to engage with consumers to build trust and share the story of agriculture is an important part of national program committee work, especially now as farmers and ranchers are still farming during the pandemic,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall. “We applaud the commitment of these newly appointed Farm Bureau members.”
“Alli and I are very excited to be part of Farm Bureau on the national level,” said Justin. “We look forward to bringing our experiences gained at the local and state Farm Bureau level to AFBF regarding issues relating to membership, engagement and public policy.”
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.
“Representing INFB at the national level is a great opportunity to work with leaders from across the country to make rural America better,” said Alli. “Justin and I also are looking forward to learning from others on the committee, building our leadership skills and giving back to agriculture.”
The AFBF Young Farmer & Rancher Committee is comprised of 16 positions all representing different regions of the country. The McKains will represent Indiana and several adjacent states.
As an integral part of AFBF committee members develop useful leadership skills that can be used to cultivate a bright future for the agriculture industry, Farm Bureau and their individual farm operations.
Interested committee members must submit a thorough application explaining their involvement in their state’s Farm Bureau and local community and be selected to participate.
“Congratulations to Justin and Alli on being appointed to AFBF’s YF&R Committee. The committee is vital to the future of Farm Bureau,” said INFB President Randy Kron. “I’m always proud to see members from Indiana selected to serve at the national level.”
AFBF’s full press release can be found here.