Awards & Acknowledgements
2024 Montgomery County Scholarship Winners
Montgomery County Farm Bureau gives up to five $500 scholarships to qualifying seniors and collegiate members each year. The applicants or their parents must be paid members of the Montgomery County Farm Bureau and must be a graduating senior in 2024 or a collegiate member and plan to attend a college or vo/tech school in the fall of 2024. The student must have at least a 2.8 cumulative high school grade point average. A committee of Montgomery County Farm Bureau members made the final decision on the selection.
The winners this year are Laramine Bruce, Caney, Emily Swiger, Coffeyville, Colben Dodson, Liberty, Clayton Wagner, Liberty, Cara Devlin, Independence. Congratulations students!
Steve and Kathy O’Brien was awarded the Sesquicentennial Farm Award.
October 2021 Frances Felts was awarded a Century Farm Award this year, pictured along with many of her family members
October 2021 President Chuck Voelker presented the Century Farm Award to Wendell and Thelma Wells.
Ernest and Rosella Wint Family were recognized as Century Farmers in 2019.
Century Farm Awards
Tradition and heritage play a big part in making agriculture such an attractive way of life for so many Kansans. The lifeblood of our existence, the farms and ranches in Kansas, provide food, fuel and fiber for the world.
The Kansas Farm Bureau “Century Farm” program will recognize family farms whose current owner/operator is related to the owner/operator of the farm in 1919 or before. The applicant must be a Kansas Farm Bureau member and have ownership within the same family for 100 years or more by Dec. 31, 2019, with at least 80 acres of the original Kansas farmland. Qualifying farmers will receive a farm sign designating “Century Farm” status and recognition from Kansas Farm Bureau.
Since the year 2000, Kansas Farm Bureau has recognized more than 2,800 family farms.
Farm Family of the Year
Mike and Peggy Blaes was awarded the Farm Family of the Year at the Montgomery County Farm Bureau meeting in October
Chuck and Julie Voelker are the 2023 Montgomery County Farm Bureau farm family winners. They are also the Kansas Farm Bureau District 3 winners.
JACO Farms was the 2022 Farm Family of the Year.
October 2021 Darren and Jacquelyne Felts was presented the Farm Family of the year award.
Eric and Jackie Chandler is the 2020 Montgomery County Farm Bureau Farm Family of the Year. Eric and Jackie have made their home in rural MG County near Sycamore for the past 20 years. During that 20 years they have been actively engaged in agriculture in a variety of ways. Currently they operate a cow calf operation, farm 160 acres of corn and soybeans, and help their daughters maintain a herd of 4-H meat goats. During the day you can find Jackie running the office for her family’s commercial hog operation, Springer Family Foods. Eric is the maintenance manager for the same 3600 sow farrow to finish swine operation. They site their biggest accomplishment as raising their two daughters, Ashley and Maggie, in a family farm setting, while helping them develop a good work ethic and an appreciation for agriculture.
Natural Resources Award
October 2021 President Chuck Voelker presented Springer Family Foods with the Natural Resources award.
Wagner Farms Inc. 2019
Montgomery County Farm Bureau Natural Resources O’Brien Farms Three Brother’s Steve, Gene and Ron Form O’Brien Farms, an agricultural operation that extends over 1,200 acres of prime grazing land along the river bottom country west of Liberty, Kansas. They are this year’s recipients because of their stewardship of natural resources.