Washtenaw County Farm Bureau

10/13/2026

Congratulations to our member Matthew Noggle.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently announced the appointment of two local Farm Bureau members to the Michigan Beef Industry Commission.

10/12/2026

10/06/2026

Our thanks to the Manchester Mirror for sharing about our awards to Manchester Farmers Jeff and Lynda Horning and Chad Fusilier.

by Kathleen Siler, Washtenaw County Farm Bureau, reprinted with permission The Washtenaw County Farm Bureau held their annual meeting on Monday, September 21, at Revel Run in Chelsea. Two of the aw…

10/02/2026

09/29/2026

Your Executive Committee:

Joseph “Joe” Packard, President
Erica Drake, Vice President
Samantha “Sam” Mamarow, Third Member

At-Large Board Members:

Katherine Adams
Kristin Azelton
Valisa Bristle
Travis Fusilier
Lynda Horning, Promotion & Education, Co-Chair
Michael “Mike” Mahrle
Jeffrey “Jeff” Nemeth
Katelyn Packard, Promotion & Education, Co-Chair
Denise Prielipp
Kimberly “Kim” Rose, Membership Committee, Co-Chair
Sofia “Sofi” Rose, Membership Committee, Co-Chair
Margaret “Emma” Trinkle

09/23/2026

Our county Farm Bureau's Young Farmers held their annual golf tournament on September 12th at the Brookside Golf Course in Saline. The proceeds from the tournament fund scholarships, and donations to local food banks. Erica Drake presented this year's scholarship award recipients at our annual meeting: Isabella Garcia, Laila Nemeth, and William Rogers.
Congratulations to them as they pursue their educational pursuits.

09/23/2026

The Outstanding Service to Agriculture award recognizes someone who has demonstrated
outstanding leadership and service to our local agriculture.

This year's award recipients are Jeff and Lynda Horning. Jeff and Lynda have been active members in their Farm Bureau community for over thirty years.

Lynda is currently serving on the Rural Education Days (or Project RED) Committee and has done so since 2005. This impactful event sees approximately 2,000 students, teachers and chaperons annual to teach them about agriculture. This massive event takes three days to put on but nearly a year to plan.

Additionally, Lynda is serving on the Promotion & Education Committee, and she has been the chair of that committee since 2014. During her time as chair, the committee has implemented many great projects like Farm Safety Day, Ag-vocacy Breakfast, Proud Farmer Social Media Campaign, National Agriculture Week displays, and various local fair booth activities. Many of these programs have been recognized at the state Farm Bureau level. Fantastically, the Treat of Agriculture and the P&E Kick Off Dinner events were both nationally recognized by American Farm Bureau. She truly is a leader in the ag promotion world.

Jeff has also had many leadership roles in Washtenaw County over the years. He has served on the county Farm Bureau board, Policy Development Committee and Candidate Evaluation Committee. He is currently on the Michigan Farm Bureau Commodity Advisory Committee for Dairy. As a Young Farmer, Jeff served on the State Young Farmer Committee, which he chaired in 1998 and as the chair served a term on the Michigan Farm Bureau Board of Directors.

Outside of Farm Bureau, Jeff has also been a longtime member of the CentralStar (formally NorthStar) Cooperative board of directors, and will be retiring from that committee this fall. He also serves on the National Dairy Herd Improvement Association board and is an appointed member of the Michigan Dairy Market Program Committee. Locally, Jeff has coached the county 4-H dairy quiz bowl and judging teams for over 20 years.

Together, Jeff and Lynda served together on the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Young Farmer and Rancher Committee, a prestigious honor that only the best of the best get the privilege of doing. They also hosted the first Michigan State University Extension Breakfast on the Farm Program in 2010; an event that brought over 2,000 visitors to their farm.

Jeff and Lynda have three children that are involved in agriculture; two of them are owner-operators of the family farm alongside their parents, and the third has a passion for teaching agriculture to kids in school. They have four grandchildren and love taking them for tractor rides, gator rides, and spoiling them in any and every way grandparents love doing. I’m sure they hope at least one of them winds up working at the farm as the 7th generation carrying on the Horning Farms legacy.

Jeff and Lynda have been pillars of the agriculture community for a long time. It’s a stature that doesn’t come with titles or accomplishments, but with humility, hospitality, and good neighborliness.

Help us congratulate Jeff and Lynda Horning as this year’s recipients of the Outstanding Service to Agriculture Award in Washtenaw County!

09/23/2026

Today we continue sharing about our awards. These awards are announced in "real time" and are a surprise to the recipients.

The Volunteer of the Year award is given to a Washtenaw County Farm Bureau Volunteer who has gone above and beyond throughout the past year. The recipient has exhibited a commitment to a specific program or event in their local community and are instrumental to the success of that event or program.

This year, we are awarding Erica Drake as Volunteer of the Year!

The list of Erica’s involvement over the past year is impressive. Erica is a current member of the county Farm Bureau board. Her involvement extends far beyond the board room though. She is currently serving as Washtenaw County’s Young Farmer chair; a role that comes with no small task of surfacing and engaging 18-35 year olds in our community to become involved in various Farm Bureau fellowship opportunities and service projects.

One of these tasks, overseeing the Young Farmer Charity Golf Tournament can be a particular challenge, given the scope of the event, the promotion and advertising involved, and day-of set up, and management of the tournament. Erica has jumped right in, despite not having a profound knowledge of golf or golf tournaments. (Those are her words, not mine!) She has successfully navigated all of these aspects, raising significant funds for our local food pantry and Young Farmer Scholarships.

Additionally, Erica has helped with the county’s Rural Education Days event for many years. This does not just include volunteering during the event while the third graders are in attendance but also helping with set up for the event. She often leads the clean up effort in the animal barns, including the not so fun job of power washing the floor of the livestock barns.

Erica’s volunteerism and involvement doesn't stop there though. She is always available to help. She spearheaded the Young Farmer Recipe Cookbook, runs the popcorn table at Treat of Agriculture, and has competed in Young Farmer Discussion Meet and Young Farmer Awards.

In addition, this year she stepped up to chair the county Farm Bureau Nominating Committee which is tasked with surfacing candidates for vacant board seats and other committee positions as the need arises.

Outside of Farm Bureau, Erica is a leader for our youth, serving as the leader of Country Expressions 4-H club. She is also on the Saline Community Fair Board. Her outgoing personality and friendly knowledge of neighbors in our community make her a natural when it comes to conversation and knowing who to talk to if someone needs advice or help.

Please help us congratulate Erica as the 2026 Washtenaw County Farm Bureau Volunteer of the Year.

09/22/2026

Young Farmer of the Year is awarded to a Washtenaw County Farm Bureau member that is 18-35 years old and who’s efforts have made a difference to our local agriculture.

This year’s recipient of the WCFB Young Farmer of the Year is Chad Fusilier.

Chad has taken full advantage of his time as a Young Farmer so far, starting his involvement right at 18. He has been at every Young Farmers Leader’s Conference and Growing Together Conference since he was old enough to attend, an impressive 12 conferences. In addition, he hascompeted in Young Farmer Discussion Meet, making it to the state competition three times, and has competed in the MFB Young Farmer Awards three times.

While at Michigan State, Chad was president of the Collegiate Farm Bureau chapter. During his time participating in and leading the group the involvementswelled from single digit membership to nearly 20 members.

Chad is finishing his final term on the Michigan Farm Bureau State Young Farmer Committee. In this role, Chad served as the connection between Michigan Farm Bureau and our District 3 county-level Farm Bureaus and Young Farmer Committees. As the demographic representing the future of our organization, the State Young Farmer Committee has the ever-dauting challenge of engaging current young farmer aged members to be active in their communities, as well as surfacing new faces to be a part of the Farm Bureau community as a whole. During his time on the committee, Chad helped organize and oversee the state level discussion meet, and was a panel member of a breakout session at the Young Farmers Leaders Conference.

Thank you for your service and leadership on the committee Chad!!

09/22/2026

The Outstanding Ag Youth Educator recognizes a person’s dedication and commitment to youth development, leadership, and education within agriculture.

This year’s recipient of the Outstanding Ag Youth Educator is Amy Harris!

Amy has been a 4-H Program Coordinator in Washtenaw County since 2023. Since that time, she has made small changes that have made a big difference in 4-H youth’s voice and leadership within the 4-H program and 4-H Youth Show.

One example is with the 4-H Livestock and Dairy Committee. This committee does the planning and makes the decisions regarding the large animal livestock for the annual county 4-H Youth Show. The committee consists of both youth and adult members. Under Amy’s leadership, the youth’s voice has been elevated and they have been encouraged to take an active roll in the decision making for their fair. Minor adjustments have changed the culture of the committee to look to the youth members for decision making first. Simple things have made a big difference, like having the youth sit in a collaborative circle at meetings, with the parents and adults off to the side; and youth being given the option to speak first during discussions before adult members. This shift has given the youth members the confidence and reassurance that their voices are important and valuable in the decision making process.

Another example is Amy’s creating and overseeing the Youth Show Book Committee. This committee was made up fully of youth members. These members reviewed the small animal and livestock rules for the youth show. This initiative put the rule making and interpretation fully in the youth members hands. Youth were able to both write new rules to address recent discrepancies and review existing rules to create clarification where needed. This multi-year overhaul was a huge success. It empowered youth to step up and problem solve to create a better, more smoothly run Youth Show for themselves.

Amy not only works with Washtenaw County 4-H, she is a 4-H volunteer in Wayne County. She runs the Master Stockman Program at the Wayne County Fair. She has updated the program to include interviews and a quiz. These updates provide an opportunity for youth to both develop their public speaking skills and critical thinking skills.

Amy’s involvement in Wayne County does not stop there though. She is heavily involved in her club and houses livestock for Wayne County 4-H, allowing youth to participate, who otherwise may not have had the opportunity.

Recently, Amy connected the two counties that she works with and their 4-H Horse Boards. Wayne County members were invited to attend a Washtenaw County 4-H Teen Horse Board Committee meeting to talk about how Washtenaw has developed strong adult-youth partnerships. It was a great opportunity for the Washtenaw members to mentor the youth and adults from Wayne County.

Amy, thank you for your dedication to teaching and inspiring youth!