**photo courtesy of farmweeknow.com
Mercer County Farm Bureau member and sixth-generation farmer Chad Bell is this year’s award winner of the Young Leader Achievement Award, which recognizes Young Leaders for their efforts in production agriculture, leadership ability, and participation in Farm Bureau and other organizations. Bell received the award over the weekend at the Annual Illinois Farm Bureau meeting in Chicago and shares his backstory:
“I have been an active Farm Bureau member for about six years now. I have been farming full time for about eight years. The Achievement Award is primarily based on the activities on your farm, so your row crop, livestock production, the goals you have for your operation, where you have been, where you are now, and where you are going, it is all based a lot on that, as well as, Farm Bureau experience and what you have done in leadership roles within Farm Bureau and even outside of agricultural organizations. It was just an award that I was encouraged to apply for by numerous people, so I thought there can’t be that many people that would lead me astray, so I decided to try it and on year two I managed to pull out the winner of the award.”
Bell will represent Illinois at the American Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers and Ranchers National Competition in January.
**Written by Director of Communications Kelsey Crain**
