North Alabama young farmers dominated contest events during the Alabama Farmers Federation’s 92nd annual meeting in Montgomery Dec. 6, winning the Outstanding Young Farm Family, Discussion Meet and Excellence in Agriculture contests.

Limestone County farmers Stan and Kayla Usery were named Alabama’s 2013 Outstanding Young Farm Family (OYFF). The couple lives in Elkmont with their daughter, Jessa, 7, and farm around 700 acres of winter wheat, soybeans, cotton and corn. They also manage nine broiler houses.

The Userys took home more than $60,000 in prizes, including a nicely equipped 2014 Chevrolet or GM pickup truck, courtesy of Alfa Insurance and the Federation; a John Deere Gator 825i XUV, courtesy of Alabama Farm Credit and Alabama Ag Credit; lease of a John Deere tractor, courtesy of SunSouth, TriGreen Equipment and Snead Ag Supply; and a personal computer system from Valcom Wireless/CCS Technology.

Madison County farmer Stewart McGill won first place in the final round of the Discussion Meet contest held Dec. 6. He received a four-wheeler courtesy of First South Farm Credit.

Excellence in Agriculture winner Zac Burns of Marshall County was recognized at the annual meeting. He received a zero-turn John Deere mower courtesy of Dow AgroSciences.

The Federation will provide the trio of winners expense-paid trips to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s (AFBF) 95th annual meeting in San Antonio later this month, where they will represent Alabama in national contests.

Plans for next year’s Young Farmers contests are underway. Applications for the 2014 OYFF program are due Jan. 15 and can be downloaded from AlfaYoungFarmers.org. See page 20 of this issue or contact Young Farmers Director Jennifer Himburg, jhimburg@alfafarmers.org for details.