By Julie Tomascik
Editor
Grow. Learn. Aspire. Texas agriculture has a bright future, and young farmers and ranchers are taking advantage of it.
As part of Texas Farm Bureau’s (TFB) Young Farmer & Rancher (YF&R) Leadership Conference, a group of about 50 young producers spent time in Central Texas building advocacy skills, touring farms and networking.
“The conference brought us young producers together to network and learn from one another,” Shannon Bellis, a Van Zandt County rancher, said. “We learned about advocacy and how to connect and communicate with others who may not always think like us.”
Bellis and her husband, Garren, are sixth generation ranchers. The cattle business is something they’re passionate about and know well.
“We’ve always been a part of the cattle industry,” Bellis said. “But this conference gave us a chance to broaden our horizons and learn about policies and advocacy from Farm Bureau.”
The three-day event sparked dialogue and inspired growth for the young farmers and ranchers.
“Agriculture and the world are different today. We can interact with someone we’ve never met before online,” Colt Christian, TFB YF&R’s Advisory Committee chair, said. “We can tell our story to someone and show them what we do on the farm rather than consumers getting that information from a website that uses misconceptions about agriculture.”
The young farmers and ranchers stepped beyond their fencerows and put those advocacy skills to practice.
“We toured farms that were similar to what we’ve always known—family farmers who use conventional methods and are looking for ways to expand to bring their families back to the farm,” Bellis said. “We also visited another ranch—Homestead Heritage. They have also devoted themselves to agriculture, just in a different way.”
The owners of Homestead Heritage practice an agrarian lifestyle and host farm tours throughout the week.
“Unfortunately, some of their educational pieces weren’t correct and promoted fear and misconceptions about agriculture and farmers and ranchers on the other side of the fence,” Bellis said. “But we had positive discussion with those who gave the tours. We told them that we’re just as committed to raising and growing safe, wholesome products.”
The group also heard from Gary Six, who was recently appointed as the state executive director in Texas for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency. He talked with the young farmers and ranchers about loans, grants and other ways they can be involved with the agency.
A panel of farmers and ranchers shared their experiences and challenges of getting started in agriculture and growing their operations.
“We need young farmers and ranchers because there are fewer of us every day,” Marcus Halfmann, District 6 YF&R Advisory Committee member, said. “It’s important for us to show up and commit ourselves to doing a better job of promoting agriculture. There are a number of ways we can do that, but we each have to find the most effective way for us to tell our story. It doesn’t matter how you do it. We just need to tell our stories.”
Learning from each other and networking was a key takeaway from the conference.
“We can all learn so much from each other,” Bellis said. “We’re facing similar struggles. The state of Texas is so vast and we all have different operations, but we are each building something unique. Our families, our farms, our passion—they’re our connection to each other.”
And each is leaving their mark on Texas agriculture and building a legacy to pass on to the next generation.
See more photos from the event here.
For more on the YF&R program, visit texasfarmbureau.org/yfr.