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The Ashtabula County Farm Bureau held its 2022 Annual Meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022, at the Ashtabula County Fairgrounds Expo Building in conjunction with the Ashtabula County SWCD, with 110 in attendance.

The evening began with a social hour for Farm Bureau members, elected officials, and candidates for the November 2022 election. The Soil and Water election was also held. The social hour was made possible by Nationwide and the Mark Bruns Agency.

A locally raised and produced dinner was catered by Go Big Catering and the meat was provided by the 4-H animals Ashtabula Farm Bureau and SWCD purchased at the 2022 Jr. Livestock Auction. A market hog was raised by Samantha Henry and a market lamb was raised by Cassie Clute. County board trustees also donated Chinese Auction items. The raffle proceeds go to the Farm Bureau scholarship fund.

County President Jason Hayes presided over the event.  Board trustees were voted on and elected for 2-year terms. Lynn Frank, Jason Hayes, Michael Hiener, Jeff Magyar, Tom Spencer and Zach Ward were re-elected to the board and new nominee, Maria Stringfellow was also elected. Bob Obhof, Debi Hurst and Rebecca Magyar Waldo were elected to serve as delegates to the 2023 Ohio Farm Bureau annual meeting with Harlee Hamilton and Maria Stringfellow as alternates.

Farm Bureau members also voted on the policies that guide the county Farm Bureau and established member positions for proposals to the Ohio Farm Bureau, which will be voted on at the 2022 Ohio Farm Bureau Annual Meeting in December.  Policy positions included agriculture’s role to increase awareness of farm and road safety, solar and wind energy education, mental health in rural communities, agricultural education programs, meat processing funding and resources, water quality, and more. All proposed policies passed.

Several code changes were presented and all passed, including one membership class, board trustees, and delegates required to be agriculturalists, and dues increase to $120 effective Dec. 1, 2022.

Outstanding County Member

Each year, each county has the opportunity to recognize an outstanding county member. The member is selected for the work they put in to make the county Farm Bureau as great as it is. This could be someone who has shown outstanding dedication this past year, or over a lifetime. The member selected for this award has demonstrated our mission of working together with farmers to advance agriculture and strengthen our communities. This year’s award went to Rachel Kalas.

Farm Bureau Partner of the Year

The Farm Bureau Partner of the Year awards was started to recognize individuals, businesses, or organizations for the service, commitment, and support of the Farm Bureau’s mission to advance agriculture and strengthen our communities. This award recognizes those who create a successful relationship that resulted in measurable success. Farm Bureau was started by a group of farmers who decided to create their own solutions to the issues they were facing, and over 100 years later, our Partners of the Year have done the exact same.  The 2022 Partners of the Year went to Magyar Farms and the Mark Bruns Agency.

Distinguished Service Award

The 2022 Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award honors deserving individuals who have made exceptional contributions to Ashtabula County agriculture and our community and are a great example of an individual, farm, or business that fulfills the Farm Bureau mission of advancing agriculture and strengthening our communities. This award is about service and the 2022 recipient is the late Jim Comp. The award was presented to his wife, Sherry Comp. Jim served on many boards at the county and state levels. Jim was a long-time Farm Bureau member, and especially in the last several years, spent time sharing his concerns in the industry.  Jim was instrumental in cultivating relationships with Ashtabula County Farm Bureau and the Ashtabula County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board and was passionate about raising awareness of Mental Health struggles in the agriculture industry.  

Scholarship winners

Faith Blankenship, Allison Graves and Allison Stokes were acknowledged as the 2022 Ashtabula County Farm Bureau scholarship recipients.  

Ohio Farm Bureau State Trustee and OFBF State Board President,  Bill Patterson shared the current happenings of the Ohio Farm Bureau and remarks from the OFBF State Board.

Ashtabula County Organization Director, Mandy Orahood shared the value of Farm Bureau and highlighted how Ashtabula County dues have been used to identify issues and find solutions.  Orahood then recognized the Ashtabula County Farm Bureau board of trustees, action team leaders and membership coordinators for their 2022 accomplishments and thanked them all for their commitment to the Ashtabula County Farm Bureau.

It was a beautiful evening filled with celebrating the work our members, volunteers and staff put into fulfilling the OFBF mission statement: Working together for Ohio farmers to advance agriculture and strengthen our communities.