The nation’s largest organization of farmers and ranchers has honored county Farm Bureaus in Illinois as well as the Illinois Farm Bureau in 2022 for programs the groups executed in 2020 and 2021.
At the 103rd convention of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) held in Atlanta, Kane County Farm Bureau and Woodford County Farm Bureau shared programs singled out as County Activities of Excellence.
Kane County Farm Bureau exhibited information about the pollinator and rain garden installed at its headquarters along busy Randall Road in St. Charles, west of Chicago. The garden celebrates a new county stormwater ordinance that allows farmers to install water best management practices when building such things as new farm buildings, grain bins and roadways.
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“It seems to be really a waste of productive farmland to build stormwater detention on property that may have 150, 200 or more acres to divert that stormwater when you create impervious surface,” says Steve Arnold, Kane County Farm Bureau manager. “It seemed to us it would be better to ask farmers to improve water quality in lieu of stormwater detention and taking valuable farmland out of production.”
The garden represents a county stormwater best management practice. In 2022, the organization will add 2,800 square feet to the original 800-square-foot pollinator and rain garden in the shape of Illinois.
AFBF also honored Woodford County Farm Bureau for creating its five-gallon-bucket filled STEM- (science, technology, engineering, math) designated elementary school lessons about corn, soybeans, beef, pork, pollinators and soil.
“It’s a wonderful way to reach our third-grade students through the pandemic without actually having to set foot in the classrooms,” says Malena Cook, Woodford County Farm Bureau manager. “It’s a lending program. All of my books and activities come back to me so that I can pass them back around to the rest of the nine schools in the county.”
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The national farm organization also recognized Illinois Farm Bureau with its New Horizon Award for innovative new programs. The state group organized an Illinois Agriculture Mental Health Summit in 2020 and has developed mental health resources for its county organizations, members and other rural Illinoisans.
To learn more about county Farm Bureaus, visit ilfb.org/about-us/directory. To learn more about Illinois Farm Bureau, visit ilfb.org.
