Carroll County Farm Bureau

By Chastity Welch, Farm Bureau Manager

As the New Year is quickly approaching now is the time to reflect on the past year and look ahead to the future. First off, we should all be thankful the Mayans were wrong and the world didn’t come to an end. However with that being said the way our government is running things it could be right around the corner.
2012 brought its own challenges along with its own victories. In January, I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Hawaii as the Farm Bureau host with members from six counties as part of the Tri-State Travel trips we do. I am thankful for the opportunity that I had. I was able to see things I wouldn’t have been able to see or even probably considered seeing if I were not with the trip.

Lucky for myself, winter was not too harsh, however looking back the farmers certainly would have appreciated having the snow to provide the moisture they did not receive the remainder of the year. In February, I presented a session at the Illinois Farm Bureau Governmental Affairs Leadership Conference. It was a honor to be selected to present, in fact this past year I have had 3 presenting gigs. This has helped me grow as a leader. March, brought the first Women in Agriculture conference in which our county along with eleven other County Farm Bureaus planned. Talk about team work making a successful event. Each county pulled their weight in planning and implementing a part of the conference which lead to having 200 attendees for our first year. We are currently working on this year’s conference with registration forms available after the first of the year.

April brought an early spring for farmers. Planting and field work started early with the warm and dry weather. I chaperoned some FFA members to their annual Illinois Farm Bureau and Affiliates Youth Conference in Springfield. These will be our future leaders some day.

May brought baseball into my life full force. Practice had started in December, but May was when the weekend travel to tournaments started. I wouldn’t have given it up for the world…which is good since it starts again any day. In May, the Women’s Committee held their 2nd Value of Corn in Livestock Feed program. They say third time is the charm, right? Well this coming May we will be doing it a third time and will have new rules in place to avoid being taken advantage of.

June brought more dry and warm weather. Of all years to no longer have our pool this wasn’t the year, although I quickly realized there was not time for me to use it anyhow. Library programs continue to be a hit and grow each year. We also held our Membership Appreciation Breakfast in June in order to free up July, which didn’t work, but that is what summer is all about. And finally the Young Leaders continue to be record setters. Actually, it is the Carroll County farmers who do the record setting. The Young Leaders collected over $25,511 in corn and cash donations that were then distributed between the four food pantries that serve Carroll County. This once again earned them the Harvest for All Award for our membership group at the IAA Annual Meeting.

There is the first half of the year, stand by for the second half. Remember, our office is closed this week and will reopen on Wednesday, January 2nd.

Farm Bureau Classifieds

Carroll County Farm Bureau members can place up to two (2) free classified ads per week, with a limit of 250 characters per ad (not including spaces). Ads are limited to personal or farm items for sale/wanted to buy, or farm labor or services available or wanted. No ads for the sale or rental of real estate, garage sales, or commercial businesses will be accepted. To place an ad, call the Farm Bureau office at 815- 244-3001 by noon Friday to get your ad in the following week’s paper.

For sale John Deere 48” snow blade.  Fits GT series lawn & garden tractor. $300.00 OBO.  815-225-5622 after 5:00 p.m.

FS: Large capacity hotpoint refrigerator/freezer, energy efficient, glass spill proof shelves, upfront temp controls, coil free back $250 OBO 815-213-1097

FS: Outback 360 GPS Mapping System, never used. Make an offer 815-259-2315

FS: Hound Hunter electronic dog collar by Sport Dog, 2 mile range $225 815-244-9610

FS: Cub Cadet 1024 lawn tractor, 50in cut 320 hours. $400 815-244-9610

FREE: 7 ft long, 3 piece entertainment center, light wood. 815-244-1883

WANTED: Twin Mattress. 815-244-1883

WANTED: Looking for antique hand noodle cutter. 815-499-2884

FS: S and I 20ft hay feeder wagon $1,000. 815-259-2315

FS: Butternut squash and walnuts by the pint. 815-493-2364