Farmers Weekly Review

The Will County Farm Bureau Young Farmers Committee met on Monday, June 24^th at 7 pm at Austin Brown’s machine shed with the following members present: RJ Nugent, Austin Brown, Courtney Sowa, Jarrad Mulderink, Kevin Ardaugh, Joe Davis, Kandice Kestel, Michael Bernhard and Mark Schneidewind, Farm Bureau manager.

RJ reviewed the pedal pulls that are scheduled for this upcoming summer/fall and developed work schedules for them. They will hold one on Family Fun Night on July 11^th and the Threshermen’s show on July 20^th. The other pedal pulls will be scheduled at the July meeting which include the Will County Fair, Chasing Cans for Cancer event, the Symerton Homecoming and the Peotone Christmas in the Village event.

RJ indicated the group had judged the Focus on Youth applications and the winners were Michael Bettenhausen and Hanna Clousing. They sent letters last week and notified the winners and we should have their pictures soon to post in the Farmers Weekly Review. The group selected to do Christmas party back at CD and Me. They also developed a work schedule for the PrimeTimers Picnic for cooking and serving on August 7^th. There will be a retirement party for RJ and Kevin and it is set for September 14^th with the location to be determined.

The committee then spent 25 minutes on reviewing the golf outing and made assignments, reviewed working schedules and the day’s events. They will talk to sponsors after the 4^th of July weekend before the deadline; however they will call people on the foursomes before the 4^th to help them secure entries while they can get the early-bird price. The tent at the golf location is up and has been working well in this heat. They will also secure a few more prizes. They have been selling raffle tickets for 2 items on the raffle and they will have 4-5 live auction items this year along with 22 Chinese raffle items. They are seeking more hole sponsors, platinum and beverage sponsors. RJ reminded all that we have moved the time to start 30 minutes earlier than last year and we will need to arrive for set up at 8:15-8:30 am.

Ag Expo had over 800 kids and 47 teachers and the Young Farmers booth for wheat was a huge hit! They then spent 30 minutes on the Ag Olympics as they now have 5 teams participating. The deadline has passed so paperwork will be sent out tomorrow to all the clubs signed up. They developed a work schedule for the event and went through the check list making assignments. RJ said we need about 8-9 workers, and they currently have 7-8. For the Will County Fair they will secure animals over the next 4 weeks. The discussion meet will be held on August 1^st so may have a few miss the SWCD annual dinner as Kevin and Kandice asked Michael to send them the details on the 2 topics.

The Legislative Barn meetings will be July 29^th at the Dave Kestel Farm and August 5^th at the Warrick Farm. We have a legislative update by the Illinois Soybean Association at our office on August 29^th at 7:30 am for a lite breakfast where they will also cover the farm bill. The Manhattan Bank with Jean Phelps has a market and economic outlook set for September 4^th at 6 pm and RJ said our ladies have the same speaker doing a grain marketing program at 3:30-5:00 pm at the Farm Bureau office on the same day. So mark your calendars and ladies plan to attend! Fall flowers for the Wreaths Across America program is September 12^th so get your orders in when the order forms become available. The CPR program is set for October 26^th.

The meeting adjourned at 8:25 pm and the next meeting is set for July 18^th at the office. They will fill the golf bags starting at 7:30 pm.