Ohio Farm Bureau Federation’s Young Agricultural Professionals will hold its annual Leadership Experience Jan. 29-30 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Columbus. The event includes 20 workshops covering a wide range of food and farming topics.
The keynote speaker for the conference is Dr. Robert T. Fraley, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Monsanto where he oversees the company’s integrated crop and seed agribusiness technology and research with facilities across the world. Dr. Fraley won the 2013 World Food Prize for “breakthrough achievements in founding, developing, and applying modern agricultural biotechnology.”
The conference also will feature a performance by The Henningsens, a country music trio consisting of Brian Henningsen, his son Aaron, and daughter Clara. In addition to writing songs for the Band Perry, the trio has the hit single, “American Beautiful” and just released their new song “Why I Farm.”
Last year’s Leadership Experience brought together more than 500 young farmers and ag professionals interested in food and farming for a day and a half of workshops, networking and fun. Attendees will choose from among 20 workshops including beekeeping, financing your farm, water laws, organic farming, brewing beer at home, food safety regulations, international export opportunities, grain commodity markets, maple syrup production, social media, cow nutrition, integrated pest management and farm succession planning.
Registration can be done online at experienceyap.com or by contacting a county Farm Bureau office. County office information can be found at ofbf.org/counties. Registration cost for an individual with no hotel room is $100 or $150 with a hotel room. Two people sharing a room can get the discounted registration price of $200 for both registrations.
Conference sponsors are Beck’s Hybrids, Nationwide, Monsanto, Organic Valley, Heartland Bank and Archbold Equipment Co.
Finals of the Discussion Meet contest also will take place at the conference. For more information and to view the full agenda, visit experienceyap.com.
Ohio Farm Bureau’s Young Agricultural Professionals program is open to individuals and couples between the ages of 18-35 who are interested in improving the business of agriculture, learning new ideas and developing leadership skills. To get involved, contact Melinda Witten at [email protected].
