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What’s better than food, friends and socializing? If you’re asking a local farmer, their answer is most likely Dinner on the Farm! Thursday evening, Sept. 8 Trumbull County Farm Bureau held its annual meeting at W.I Miller and Sons with 88 members in attendance. This yearly event combines farmers, speakers, dinner and a meeting to make for a memory filled evening. I, myself serve on the board of trustees and always enjoy attending annual meeting to see the past year in review as well as to prepare and see what we can improve for the upcoming year.

The evening started out with refreshments, followed by dinner catered by Cockeye Barbeque, a local establishment that not only serves up delicious food, but is also a huge supporter of the Trumbull County Junior Livestock Sale. Dinner was then topped off with dessert consisting of ice cream from another local business, Denmandale Dairy. In addition to a wonderful meal, a Chinese auction was another highlight of the evening with a variety of items donated by the county Farm Bureau Board of Trustees

Annual meeting not only consists of the highlights previously mentioned, but it is so much more. Farm Bureau does so much throughout the year that is just briefed on at annual meeting, but at a state level, guest speaker Adam Sharp was present. Adam is the executive vice president of Ohio Farm Bureau Federation and overviewed some key topics going on with farming across the world and how this can affect us in Ohio. A couple of the key points included: Consumers and how they are looking to purchase, supply chain and urbanization. In addition to our guest speaker, proposed code changes for membership were discussed and voted on, board of trustee and delegate positions were voted on, and policy proposals were given. This meeting was also the perfect way to go over 2022 accomplishments, give out awards to winning recipients, and recognize scholarship winners as well. Moreover, annual meeting sets the course for mapping out the next year for the county and being a grassroots organization. What better way than to hear from our members on their thoughts and opinions.

Election results: board trustees elected were Timothy McCormick, Richard Moody, Marsha Stanhope and Marie Morris.  Delegates elected to the 2023 Ohio Farm Bureau annual meeting are Gary Smallsreed, Steve Kacerski and 1st Alternate, James Allen.  All county, state and national policies presented passed.  The Code of Regulations change was voted by show on hands and passed.

The 2022 Scholarship recipients are Desirae Allen and Colby Turon. 

Mark Bockelman, owner of Bockelman’s Landscaping, received the Thomas Schwartz Environmental Friendly Farmer Award.  This award was first given in 1996 and is meant to honor former Trumbull County Farm Bureau President Tom Schwartz and to give recognition and visibility to the farmers that place high emphasis on protecting and improving our environment. 

 

W.I. Miller & Sons was recognized as the County Members  of Distinction which recognizes volunteer leaders for their service, dedication, and effort to the organization to further the mission of Farm Bureau. The Miller family are stewards of the land in the truest sense, supporters of their community, and more than deserve the County Members of Distinction Honor.

Marie Morris, our County Office Administrator received the Distinguished Service to Ag Award for her 32 years of service to Farm Bureau. The 2022 Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award honors deserving individuals who have made exceptional contributions to Geauga County agriculture and our community and is a great example of an individual, farm, or business that fulfills the Farm Bureau mission of advancing agriculture and strengthening our communities.

Overall, by having members attend this annual meeting, we as an organization are able to out policies in place that affect our day to day lives, as well as livelihoods. Hearing from our members and seeing what is working for them in agriculture and in their individual communities as well as listening and hearing about what they think can be changed, or done better is really what it is all about. We need to start at the base level and work our way up as a group to be able to serve everyone as best as we can and to be a resource that makes changes that our people want and need to better agriculture.

 

OFBF Mission: Working together for Ohio farmers to advance agriculture and strengthen our communities.