Two of Michigan’s 65 county Farm Bureaus will put their programming successes on display at next week’s American Farm Bureau Federation 2025 Annual Convention, Jan. 25-27 in San Antonio.
Winners in AFBF’s County Activities of Excellence program, representatives from the Berrien and Saginaw County Farm Bureaus will staff exhibits spotlighting standout activities that earned them recognition on a national stage.
Berrien
Berrien County Farm Bureau’s “No Farmer, No Fair Food” exhibit stemmed from a need to create a display in our county fair’s Ag Expo building.
Promotion & Education team members put their heads together and came up with an engaging exhibit combining a fun straw maze with informative content revealing the agricultural origins of indulgent fair food items. The finished product combined fun interactivity with relatable lessons shedding light on participants’ immediate setting at the fair.
Spurring Berrien’s P&E team was the consistent truth that every new generation of fairgoers is further removed than the previous one from firsthand exposure to agriculture.
“No Farmer, No Fair Food” included some fair-food replicas throughout the maze, vibrant posters bearing recipes and listing commodity components, and punch cards for logging explorers’ progress along the way. Upon completing the challenge all successful maze navigators earned a Welch’s fruit snack and a “No Farmer, No Fair Food” write band.
Littler fairgoers not quite ready for mazes enjoyed time a corn table strewn with toy tractors, still picking up some farm lessons in a fun environment.
Altogether almost 3,000 kids made their way through the exhibit, staffed by more than 20 volunteers throughout the week — several of them previously uninvolved in Farm Bureau programming.
Saginaw
Outside its urban core, rural Saginaw County is blessed with flat, rich land and more than 1,200 deeply rooted farms, many of them multi-generational operations. Today’s generation is keen to put its best foot forward and present a visual image as tidy as their track record of environmental stewardship.
Most paths toward that goal — reinforced by Farm Bureau policy — share a common hurdle: Properly disposing of the large farm and truck tires that inevitably pile up over time. Few conventional recyclers process larger tires, so Saginaw County Farm Bureau put its creativity to work to provide members with a solution.
More than 40 member farms participated in the county’s 2024 ag tire drive, removing tons of scrap rubber from Saginaw County farms.
Springtime postcards encouraged members to round up spent farm tires in preparation for delivery. Interested responders received tags, delivery information and a specific drop-off window — and every one of them followed through.
Staff at a cooperating recycling center collected tags upon delivery, confirmed each tally and used specialized equipment to remove incoming tires from the parade of trailers and pickups.
Sponsorships from area agribusinesses and foundations helped pick up the tab, with the remainder covered by the county Farm Bureau itself.
Some 80% of participants were previously uninvolved in Farm Bureau. One farmer renewed a membership that had been lapsed for years, vowing to stay on the rolls for similarly practical benefits.
Hoping to capitalize on that enthusiasm, board members followed up with personal invitations to the county annual meeting and engagement in other Farm Bureau programming.
And the waiting list for a follow-up drive is already growing!
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