Agriculture + Lifestyle

YF&R Conference equips attendees to succeed 

by Jay Stone
News Reporter

Posted on September 3, 2024 9:48 AM

The Georgia Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers (YF&R) Summer Leadership Conference, held July 17-20 on Jekyll Island, provided opportunities to network, learn about Farm Bureau and develop professional skills.

Keynote messages from first-generation farm owners and a Marine veteran offered encouragement to help attendees overcome obstacles they may face.

Conference attendees also assembled about 13,000 meals for the Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia, one of the regional food banks in Feeding Georgia’s network.

The GFB YF&R Committee recognized Screven County for having the largest delegation at the conference with 16. District 2 was the district with the most attendees - 43. District 8 was recognized as the district with the largest increase in attendance from the 2023 conference to this year with 8 attendees last year to 19 this year.

Conference attendees packaged 13,000 meals for a local food bank. / Photo by Logan Thomas

Yons build farm with perseverance & faith

Kevin and Lydia Yon of Ridge Spring, South Carolina, outlined how they started their farm from scratch.

The Yons, who were named the 2018 Sunbelt Ag Expo Farmers of the Year, shared how their farming career began after college and developed since they started their operation in 1996. 

The couple met in the 1980s as students at Clemson University, where they both studied animal science. They landed a tandem internship/job managing Congaree Farms, a ranch near Columbia. That lasted seven years, until the owner decided he did not want to have cows anymore.

“That was kind of a take-the-wind-out-of-your sails moment for us,” Lydia said. “We were faced with what are we going to do? Where are we going to go? What's next? There were a whole lot of questions, a whole lot of prayers and a whole lot of confusion as far as we looked at it. Our family didn't have an opportunity for us to come back to the farm. We really just didn't have any plan B at that point.”

Then, they took a Sunday drive to Ridge Spring, which is about halfway between Columbia, S.C., and Augusta, just north of I-20. Riding around, Lydia suggested they buy land there, but Kevin said there wouldn’t be any available. 

They stopped at a gas station where Kevin had a chance meeting with a farmer to whom he’d sold bulls from Congaree Farms. The farmer told Kevin that he and his brother had been talking about the Yons and thought they would fit in well in the Ridge Spring community. 

“To us, there's never been a clearer sign that that's what we were to do,” Kevin said. “There's been many a hard day along the way, but I never asked myself if this was the right thing to do. We’re believers, and we felt that God meant for us to be there. So that’s helped along the way as we knew we had a purpose.”

The Yons moved to Ridge Spring with a deal in place that allowed them to start their own operation on 100 acres while living in a small house on the property. When they moved, they had a herd of 200 cows at Congaree, but they couldn’t afford to move them all to Ridge Spring.

With financial help from the Farm Service Agency, they were able to cover half the herd, and worked out a deal to sell the other half to a neighboring farmer. 

From those 100 acres in 1996, they’ve grown their farm to 5,000 acres with approximately 1,500 brood cows. But, their growth hasn’t been without risk.

They talked about taking on debt to expand and how they’ve handled having their adult children come back to the family farm. See story on page 7.

Early in their career the Yons heard that farming would be too expensive for a first-generation farm family to go into without inheriting land and farm assets. Undeterred, they pushed forward, buying used equipment, getting land piece-by-piece and finding their way.

“Little by little it would happen like this: An older couple would come to us and say, ‘Our children are not interested in coming back to the farm. We don't want to sell the farm. We don't want to move to town. We would like for y'all to rent our farm. We'd like for you to buy our cows,’” Kevin said. “So that's how it happened. I bet there were six or eight of those anywhere from a 30-acre farm to a 300-acre farm in our area that the owners rented or sold us their farms over time.”

While the couple knows that taking out loans is not the way some people want to operate, taking on debt allowed the Yons to establish their farm without inheriting family land. 

All the acquisitions over the years might have come with complexities, but Kevin said his underlying philosophy has been simple.

“Just work hard, be honest and treat others as you would like for them to treat you,” he said. “Work hard and good things will happen to you.”

Overcoming adversity & embracing sacrifice

Johnny Joey Jones, a Marine Corps veteran, best-selling author and contributor to Fox News, talked about his experiences growing up the son of a brick mason in Whitfield County.  Jones also discussed serving in the Marine Corps’ Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) and losing his legs when he stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED) during a tour of duty in Afghanistan. 

From his dad, Jones learned the importance of doing things right. Jones recounted the story of his father cutting his hand because he refused to wear gloves, reasoning that his ability to feel the brick and mortar helped him do a better job and would save someone else trouble later. 

Marine Corps veteran Johnny Joey Jones shared the story of how he’s survived and succeeded after losing his legs in an IED explosion in Afghanistan. / Photo by Logan Thomas

After high school, Jones joined the Marine Corps, working first as a radio technician and later as an EOD technician, finding bombs and then either defusing them or moving them to a place where they could be set off safely. In the explosion that cost Jones his legs, a fellow Marine and friend was mortally wounded when a wall fell on him.

In the hospital afterward, Jones asked a nurse where his friend was. 

“She wiped my forehead, my mouth and my face. And then she said, ‘Don't worry, you're going to walk again,’” Jones recalled. “She knew if she told me the answer to the question I was asking, the guilt and sadness might dictate that journey for the rest of my life. In that moment she had the opportunity to tell me what I needed to hear when I needed to hear it, even when that wasn't what I was asking.”

Jones told the young farmers and ranchers that he sees sacrifice in their chosen profession and emphasized that there is nobility in it. 

“You're here because you've chosen a harder road than most, but one that's worth it, that comes with fulfillment. You're here because you've chosen to take responsibility for your life and earn a living to do it for those you care about and have responsibility to,” he said. “You're here because you want to be here. You're here because you have a love for life that others don't. And now you have a chance to share it.”