Menu

Family, technological innovation and involvement with Farm Bureau were credited as areas important to success by the young farmer award winners at this year's annual convention.

While all contest participants gave Ohio reason to be proud, Brian and Jennifer Harbage of South Charleston were named the Outstanding Young Farm Couple and Dusty and Cheryl Sonnenberg of Hamler received the Excellence in Agriculture award. Each couple will go on to represent Ohio in their respective national competitions in Charlotte, N.C., during the AFBF annual meeting.

Both awards recognize people 35 or younger who have demonstrated success in their professional lives and a commitment to agriculture. The Young Farmer award is reserved for those in the farming business while the Excellence in Agriculture is given to those who are involved agriculture but whose primary occupation is not farming.

The Harbages' operation produces grain, forage, straw, sweet corn, peas and beef cattle. Brian is president of the Clark County Farm Bureau, and Jennifer is past county Farm Bureau women's trustee and advisory council secretary. They are continuing to expand their operation in hopes of involving more family members.

"With family, if you work hard, you can always succeed at something," Jennifer said.

Brian said that down the road it will be important to implement new technology, such as global positioning systems, into their operation.

"We're just going to keep on top of the technology and keep moving forward to build our operation and get as strong as we can," he said.

In addition to a trip to Charlotte, the Harbages won a $1,000 purchase certificate at Grainger Industrial Supply, a year lease on a Kubota tractor, $500 from Dodge Trucks, $500 worth of Syngenta products and a commemorative chime clock from OFBF.

The Sonnenbergs have worked to build positive relationships between the agricultural community and the nonfarm public through ownership of a farmer's market and the production of an informational newsletter.

"Consumers really want to know where their product came from and how it was raised," Cheryl said.

Dusty is an agricultural extension agent and the couple operates the family's direct market freezer beef business. They have served in many Farm Bureau program areas and have helped several other local agricultural organizations.

"Farm Bureau has provided us as a couple and as a family a lot of interesting and unique opportunities, and we're just thrilled to be a part of the organization," Dusty said. "We will try to do what we can in this contest and do what we can to give back to the organization and get more people involved."

Along with their trip to Charlotte, the Sonnenbergs won a $1,000 technology package from OFBF, $500 from Dodge Trucks and a commemorative chime clock from OFBF.

Caption: Brian and Jennifer (and Aidan) Harbage, Outsanding Young Farm Couple winners.

Caption: Dusty and Cheryl Sonnenberg, Excellence in Agriculture winners.