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GFB Young Farmers & Ranchers winners gear up for 2025 AFBF competition

Houston County’s Cason Anderson, Kaitlyn and Kaleb Marchant of Oglethorpe County and Cain Thurmond of Jackson County, winners of the Georgia Farm Bureau (GFB) Young Farmers & Ranchers (YF&R) 2024 competitive events, are preparing for 2025 national competitions to be held at the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Annual Convention in San Antonio, Texas, in January. They were first announced as winners at the GFB YF&R Summer Leadership Conference in July and will be recognized at the upcoming GFB Convention on Dec. 8.

The YF&R program helps young Farm Bureau members shape their future and American agriculture through leadership development and personal growth opportunities. These competitions enable members to showcase their leadership experience, communication skills and successful business plans as they compete against the best of the best from each state Farm Bureau.

As part of the YF&R competitions, the top four competitors in the AFBF Achievement Award, Discussion Meet and Excellence in Ag areas will receive:

Winner* (First Place) receives: 

• $35,000 credit toward a new Ford vehicle (value of $35,000)

*Ford, located in Dearborn, Michigan, is the sponsor of the awards.

• Paid registration to the Farm Bureau® FUSION Conference in Denver, Colorado, March 7-10, 2025.

Runner-up** (Second Place) receives:

• $25,000 credit toward a new Case IH piece of equipment (value of $25,000) 

**Case IH, located in Racine, Wisconsin, is the sponsor of the runner-up awards.

 Finalist** (Third Place) receives:

• A $2,500 Investing in Your Future cash prize, courtesy of AmericanAg® 

**AmericanAg™, located in Schaumburg, Illinois, is the sponsor of these finalist awards.

• $2,500 worth of Stanley Black & Decker merchandise (PROTO, DeWalt, Stanley, Lenox & Irwin)

**Stanley Black & Decker, located in New Britain, Connecticut, is the sponsor of these finalist awards

• A Case IH branded safe (approximate MSRP of $1,800) 

**Case IH, located in Racine, Wisconsin, is the sponsor of these finalist awards.

Finalist** (Fourth Place) receives:

• A Case IH branded Solo Stove® (approximate MSRP of $1,370) 

**Case IH, located in Racine, Wisconsin, is the sponsor of these finalist awards.

Anderson won the 2024 GFB YF&R Achievement Award, which recognizes farmers and ranchers aged 18-35 who earn most of their income from production agriculture.

A first-generation farmer who lives in Perry, Anderson grows pecans on a total of 1,020 acres across multiple counties. He also grows sweet corn and provides custom farm work.

He serves on the Houston County Farm Bureau Board of Directors as the corporate secretary and YF&R chairman. He represented GFB’s 8th District on the state YF&R Committee in 2019-2021.

The Marchants won the 2024 GFB YF&R Excellence in Agriculture Award, given to recognize agriculturalists aged 18-35 who are active Farm Bureau members, promote agriculture in their community, and earn most of their income from something other than production agriculture.

The Marchants live in Winterville. Kaitlyn works for the Georgia Department of Education as the North Region ag education coordinator. Kaleb is pursuing a PhD from UGA and manages the beef and sheep unit at the UGA Double Bridges Farm in Winterville.

Thurmond won the YF&R Discussion Meet. The discussion meet is a series of committee-style meetings in which contestants hash over issues and solutions related to a specific ag-related topic. He emerged from a field of 29 contestants from across the state.

Thurmond is a system relationship manager with Farm Credit Services of America. He and his wife, Whitney, live in Jefferson. The Thurmonds own the Storey Garden & Grove, a Christmas tree farm scheduled to open winter 2026. They also have a small pecan orchard.

 

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