Mason County couple makes top 10 in American Farm Bureau competition.

Seth, right, and Lyndsay Earl with a representative from Michigan Cat during the state annual meeting.

Mason County couple makes top 10 in American Farm Bureau competition. 

#MasonCountyAgriculture.

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief.

PHOENIX, Arizona — Seth and Lyndsay Earl of Hamlin Township have placed in the top 10 of the American Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers and Ranchers Excellence in Agriculture competition during the American Farm Bureau’s annual convention. The finalists will be announced Monday. 

In December, the Earls were awarded the Michigan Farm Bureau’s Excellence in Agriculture Award during the organization’s annual state meeting at DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids. The award was part of the Farm Bureau’s young farmer leadership awards. Young Farmers and Ranchers are Farm Bureau members who are aged 36 or younger. 

The Excellence in Agriculture Award spotlights young Farm Bureau members who are agricultural enthusiasts but have not earned a majority of their income from an owned production agriculture enterprise in the past three years. Competitors are evaluated on their understanding of agricultural issues, leadership experiences and achievement, and their ability to communicate their agricultural story. There were 28 competing nationally for the award.

Lyndsay grew up on her family’s farm, Stakenas Farms, in Free Soil Township while Seth grew up in southern Michigan, the son of an agricultural educator who also farmed. She works for the Michigan Milk Producers Association while he works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In their involvement in promoting agriculture in Mason County, they help organize Ludington Friday Night Live events, where farmers offer samples of local agricultural commodities and bring farm animals for children to pet. Seth is also the president of Mason County Farm Bureau and Lyndsay is a county board member and sits on the state Promotion and Education Committee.