Box Elder couple wins Utah Farm Bureau Achievement award

SANDY <strong>– </strong>Joel and Becca Ferry of Box Elder County were the winners of the Utah Farm Bureau Young Farmer and Rancher ‘Achievement Award’. The award was presented at the recent Utah Farm Bureau Annual Convention and is considered the top honor for young farmers and ranchers in Utah.

The Achievement Award is a competition that recognizes those young farmers and ranchers that have excelled in their farming or ranching operations and honed their leadership abilities to superiority.

The contestants are evaluated on a combination of their farming operation growth and financial progress of operation, Farm Bureau leadership and leadership outside of Farm Bureau. More specifically, the judges look for excellence in management, growth and scope of the enterprise and self-initiative that are displayed throughout the operation.

Joel and Becca make their home in Brigham City, but farm in partnership with Joel’s family in Corinne. Joel is involved in the various segments of the farm, including overall management decisions for the family’s crops, feedlot, hunting and other livestock sectors. After growing up on the family’s farm, Joel took a few years away to study and work in finance for Zions Bank, before leaving a few years ago to work full-time on the farm.

Upon returning to his country roots, Joel has also implemented several measures to improve water quality and wetland habitat on the family’s ranch property, using livestock as a tool to ward off invasive species while at the same time reclaiming previously unusable land.

Joel and Becca have four children, and the couple is very involved in their kids’ schools. Becca has been a volunteer for many years, participating in Utah State University’s ‘Ag in the Classroom’ program, where farmers and ranchers provide agricultural resources to teachers and students.

The Ferry family, representing the Box Elder County Farm Bureau, competed with five other contestants from around the state for the award. Joel &amp; Becca received a plaque, a $500 check from the General Motors, a 2013 Polaris Ranger ATV from Polaris Industries, an insurance policy for the ATV from Farm Bureau Financial Services, and an expense-paid trip in January to the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

The Ferrys will compete at the American Farm Bureau annual convention against Achievement Award winners from across the nation. National winners of the Achievement Award their choice of either a Chevy Silverado or GMC Sierra Truck, courtesy of General Motors.

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