Sarah Byrd of Oktibbeha County recently won the 2019 Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers & Ranchers Collegiate Discussion Meet hosted at Mississippi State University.
Byrd, a Mississippi State University agronomy major, won a $2,000 scholarship, a YETI cooler sponsored by Mississippi Farm Bureau Insurance, an expense-paid trip to the 2019 MFBF Convention, and an expense-paid trip to compete in the 2020 American Farm Bureau Federation YF&R Collegiate Discussion Meet in Louisville, Kentucky in March 2020.
Byrd is extremely grateful to have won the contest, and is looking forward to representing MFBF at the national competition in March.
The Collegiate Discussion Meet is sponsored by the MFBF YF&R Committee, and scholarships are provided to the winners through the MFBF YF&R Scholarship Foundation. Agriculture’s strength depends on producers’ ability to analyze problems and decide on solutions that best meet their needs. The discussion meet is an activity designed to build these crucial skills in young people. By participating, individuals build basic discussion skills, develop a keen understanding of important agricultural issues and explore how groups can pool knowledge to reach a consensus and solve problems.
“The discussion meet serves as a key way Farm Bureau can invest in the future of agriculture,” MFBF President Mike McCormick said. “I congratulate all of the winners, and encourage other students to participate in the future.”
The YF&R Committee awarded three additional $500 scholarships to alternate contest participants. The alternate winners were:
- Will Baugh – Oktibbeha County – Mississippi State University, Agricultural Leadership
- Coley Tabb – Webster County – Mississippi State University, Agricultural Engineering, Technology, & Business
- Garett Anglin – Simpson County – Mississippi State University, Industrial Engineering
Eligible Collegiate Discussion Meet contestants must be Farm Bureau members between the ages of 18 and 35 who are undergraduate students enrolled at a Mississippi college or university.