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Georgia Farm Bureau presents state awards at 2025 convention

GEORGIA FARM BUREAU PRESENTS STATE AWARDS

In ceremonies during the 88th Annual Georgia Farm Bureau (GFB) Convention, the organization announced the recipients of its Rewarding Excellence in Ag Program (REAP), as well as honoring 10 Volunteers of the Year and presenting the Ag in the Classroom Teacher of the Year Award.

GFB’s REAP award honors county Farm Bureaus for the organization/membership, advocacy, leadership development, education & outreach activities they did between Sept. 1, 2024, and Aug. 31, 2025. The REAP Awards are divided into three tiers – Harvester (1st), Planter (2nd) and Cultivator (3rd) with tier winners in each of GFB’s three membership categories – small, medium and large. County presidents and office managers listed are for the majority of 2025.

The county REAP winners in the top tier, HARVESTER, are:

Small Farm Bureau counties – Ben Hill (President Glenn Stokes, Office Manager Denise Coleman), Crawford (President Edward Harris, Office Manager Lindsey Campbell), Dooly (President Teel Warbington, Office Manager Angela Burton), Jasper (President Scotty Dumas, Office Manager Loretha Gage), Long (President Manuel Sneed, Office Manager Margaret Bess),

Meriwether (President Kenneth Murphy, Office Manager Denise Todd), Treutlen (President Kim Thompson, Office Manager Rena Carter), Turner (President Ross Kendrick, Office Manager Karen McCurdy) and Worth (President Hank Youngblood, Office Manager Connie Melton)

Medium Farm Bureau counties – Banks (President William Reems, Office Manager Julie Jackson), Clarke (President Dale Wood, Office Manager Katy Seagraves), Dawson (President Wayne Bennett, Office Manager Tammy Wood), Evans (President Gregg Hendrix, Office Manager Nicole Cox), Greene (President Jeff Eley, Office Manager Shirley Duvall), Haralson (President Stanley Williams, Office Manager Kim Hindmon), Harris (President Gilbert Andrews, Office Manager Linda Luttrell), Jeff Davis (President James Emory Tate, Office Manager Regina Barton), Monroe (President Bill Waldrep, Office Manager Sandi Williams), Oconee (President Albert Hale, Office Manager Martha Jo Dalton), Oglethorpe (President Kaitlyn Marchant, Office Manager Maisie Carter), Polk (President James Casey, Office Manager Sue Cuzzort), Screven (President Joe Boddiford, Office Manager Beth Reddick), Tattnall (President Cliff Riner, Office Manager Erin Todd),  Washington (President Eddy Turner, Office Manager Sharon Studdard) and Wilcox (President Bob McLeod, Office Manager Michelle Lamb);

Large Farm Bureau counties – Barrow (President Russ Wilburn, Office Manager Ashley Lowery), Carroll (President Doug Smith, Office Manager Jennifer Dixson), Cherokee (President William Grizzle, Office Manager Rhonda Stargel), Coffee (President Cray Grantham, Office Manager Carla Palmer), Effingham (President Stuart Exley, Office Manager Theresa Peavey), Elbert (President Mandy Williams, Office Manager Haley Oakley), Franklin (President Michael Thomason, Office Manager Rebecca Whitfield), Habersham (President Chip Brooks, Office Manager  Madison Bennett), Hart (President Brian Fleming, Office Manager Tina Simmons), Henry (President Daniel Welliver, Office Manager Jean Dykes), Jackson (President Swayne Cochran, Office Manager Jada Williams), Madison (President Cindy Jones, Office Manager Lauren Lord), McDuffie (President Mark Rodgers, OM Ashley Walker), Newton (President Chuck Berry, Office Manager Mary Corley), Paulding (President Sam Raybon, Office Manager Krista Wilkes), Walker (President Brian Hart, Office Manager Kyla Compton), Walton (President Ken Boss, Office Manager Mandy Braswell) and White (President Stanley London, Office Manager Denise Loggins);

Each Harvester County received a plaque & $1,500. Each county president received an embroidered jacket, and each county office manager received a $750 gift card.

The county REAP winners in the second tier, PLANTER, are:

Small Farm Bureau counties – Bacon (President David Lee, Office Manager Janie Tyre), Lanier (President Paul Folsom, Office Manager Angie Watson), Putnam (President Lois Schell, Office Manager Marjorie Hanson), Upson (President Marcus South, Office Manager Judy Warren

Warren (President Tammy Cheely, Office Manager Katelyn Washington), and Wilkes (President Danny Gunter, Office Manager Deborah Hunnicutt);

Medium Farm Bureau Counties – Berrien (President Jake Ford), Chattooga (President Bill Bryan, Office Manager Sandy Wheat), Decatur (President Judson Hornsby, Office Manager Lisa Green), Dougherty (President Laney Wooten, Office Manager Cindy Drew), Pike (President Ray Brumbeloe, Office Manager Rebecca Rolling), Spalding (President Brian Ogletree, Office Manager Cindy Vandiver) and Troup (President Joel Keith, Office Manager Anna Rogers);

Large Farm Bureau counties – Douglas (President Joey Rainwater, Office Manager Kim Hines);

Each Planter County will receive a plaque. Each county president will receive an embroidered vest, and each county office manager will receive a $500 gift card.

The county REAP winners in the third tier, CULTIVATOR, are:

Small Farm Bureau Counties – Burke (President Lee Webster, Office Manager Gail Webster), Crisp (President Kenny Sheffield, Office Manager Macey Dennard), Heard (President Ralph Caldwell, Office Manager Stacy Buttrill), Johnson (President William Tanner, Office Manager Torie Gilbert) and Taliaferro (President Tucker West, Office Manager Melanie Finney);

Medium Farm Bureau counties – Brooks (President Kurt Childers, Office Manager Robbie Hiers), Camden (President Bob Merck, Office Manager Ashley Eady), Columbia (President Jim Steed, Office Manager Chris Rickerson), Fayette (President Rick Minter, Office Manager Erin Guy), Floyd (President Cleve Jackson, Office Manager Kelli Shaw), Morgan (President Rachel Kinsaul, Office Manager Alison Jenkins) and Toombs (President Chris Hopkins, Office Manager Shelby Galbreath);

Large Farm Bureau counties – Coweta (President Sam Bowers, Office Manager Leah Egerdahl), Gilmer (President Darrell Jones, Office Manager Candra Frady), Houston (President Edmond Strickland, Office Manager Lisa Hall), Laurens (President James Malone, Office Manager Mary Morris), Rabun (President Mike Dixon, Office Manager Cindy Turpin) and Rockdale/DeKalb (President David Shipp, Office Manager Anna Attard).

Each Cultivator County received a plaque. Each county president received an embroidered shirt, and each county office manager received a $300 gift card.

Casey receives GFB Legacy Award

Polk County Farm Bureau (PCFB) President James Casey received the inaugural GFB Legacy Award in recognition of his service to and impact on Farm Bureau during the 60 years he has led his county Farm Bureau.

“James Casey has given six decades of dedicated service, advocacy and mentorship to the farmers of his community,” said GFB President Tom McCall when presenting the award. “Mr. Casey’s quiet strength and steady leadership have advanced the work of Farm Bureau, and he has inspired generations who will carry that work forward.”

During his presidency, PCFB has developed local political forums to engage candidates on agricultural topics and farm days for school children. In the late 1980s the American Farm Bureau Federation decided to upgrade communications between its national headquarters and the state and county Farm Bureaus by installing a series of satellite communications facilities. Casey lobbied to get one of the satellite dishes in Polk County and then-GFB President Mort Ewing agreed. Polk County was the first county Farm Bureau in the state to have one of the dishes, and Casey made the first phone call using it, connecting with then-Sen. Wyche Fowler in Washington.

“He's a quintessential Farm Bureau president. He believes in the mission of the Farm Bureau,” said GFB 3rd District Director Chad Carlton, who also serves on the PCFB Board of Directors. “Everything we do and everything he does through the Polk County Farm Bureau is viewed through the lens of ‘How are we going to promote and support agriculture?’ So just having that person leading our county has been an inspiration to me.”

After graduating from the University of Georgia, Casey returned home to Polk County.

“I was born on a farm. I never had the intention to do anything but farm. My Daddy didn’t think I’d come back after I got a degree, but my father was a farmer and his father was a farmer, and both of them farmed right there in the same valley where I farmed, so, I went back to the family farm.”

Casey dairy farmed for years before retiring. He was 29 when he took office as PCFB president in December 1965. Since then, he has presided over the growth and changes of PCFB. During an interview with GFB media in 2015 to celebrate his 50 years in office, Casey said while at times he would have been happy if someone else had assumed Farm Bureau leadership in the county, his attitude has always been that someone had to be an advocate for agriculture. Might as well be him.

To explain why, he referenced a quote often attributed to Edmund Burke: “All that’s required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”

Casey and his wife, Jean, have been married 66 years. They have three daughters – Joan Mitchell, Judith Mulcay and Janice Shelly. They have four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Westhafer named GFB Teacher of Year

Jackson County teacher Dr. Stephanie Westhafer was recognized as Georgia Farm Bureau’s 2025 Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) Teacher of the Year. Westhafer is a first-grade teacher at West Jackson Elementary School in Braselton, where she has taught since 2021. She previously taught Pre-K for 10 years.

Westhafer teaches science, English/language arts, math and social studies to her first graders. She received the GFB AITC Teacher of the Year award for incorporating agriculture topics into her class curriculum. She invites Jackson County Farm Bureau volunteers to read accurate ag books and do other activities with her classes throughout the year.

“In my classroom, agriculture isn’t a subject we occasionally visit – it’s the heartbeat of our learning community. At our STEAM-certified school, students engage in project-based learning with a year-long focus in the learning garden,” Westhafer said. “Our essential question is ‘How can we maintain a seasonal garden to provide food for our school and community?’ That question drives inquiry, builds responsibility and creates meaningful connections to science, literacy, math and social studies. The larger goal is to help my students understand how agriculture sustains us and how the choices we make about food impact our health and community. My students no longer see agriculture as something that happens ‘out there,’ but as a vital part of their lives and community.”

As part of their year-long dive into agriculture, Westhafer’s students planted a pizza garden, learned how to enrich garden soil by vermicomposting and composting, and tracked seasonal changes and the effects weather has on plant growth. They also learned how to make butter and adopted a calf through a program that provided monthly updates on its growth, care and life on a dairy farm. Her students were visited by a local chef who taught them how to make spring rolls using leafy greens and herbs they grew in a vertical farm tower. The students also worked with their families to create recipes using the leafy greens and herbs they grew and created a Farm Tower to Table recipe book.

As the award winner, Westhafer receives $500 and a trip to the 2026 National Ag in the Classroom Conference in Rhode Island next June. The prizes are sponsored by Georgia EMC, GFB & the Georgia Foundation for Agriculture.

“Dr. Westhafer is one of those teachers that you come across once in a great while. Her enthusiasm, love and passion for teaching and her students are impressive to all,” said JCFB Office Manager Jada Williams. “Her students worked all year on a seasonal garden to help provide food for their school and community.”

Westhafer earned a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, a master’s in teaching elementary education, and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. She also received an Agricultural Literacy Educator Certification from the National Center for Agricultural Literacy.

She received the 2025 Robert E. Yager Exemplary Teaching Award from the National Science Teachers Association and was the 2023-2024 Jackson County School System Teacher of the Year.

GFB honors district Volunteers of the Year

GFB also recognized 10 district Volunteers of the Year for extraordinary efforts to promote agriculture in their local communities. The Volunteers of the Year are: 1st Dist. – Andrea Sims, Catoosa Co.; 2nd Dist. – Terry Chandler, Madison Co; 3rd Dist. – Dr. Deetra Poindexter, Clayton Co.; 4th Dist. – Della Fowler, Greene Co.; 5th Dist. – Terry Cooley, Crawford Co.; 6th Dist. – Alan Thiese, Bibb Co.; 7th Dist. – Melanie Hendrix, Evans Co.; 8th Dist. – Bristol Peterson, Wilcox Co.; 9th Dist. – Sandra McDonald, Brooks Co.; and 10th Dist. – Mary Folsom, Lanier Co.

Franklin County farmer wins GFB Hay Contest

Franklin County Farm Bureau member Garren Hall won the 2025 GFB Quality Bermudagrass Hay Contest. Hall won the contest with hay that had a Relative Forage Quality (RFQ) test score of 177. As the first-place winner, Hall receives the free use of a Vermeer wheel rake for one year, courtesy of Vermeer. He will have the option to buy the equipment at a reduced price at the end of the year. 

GFB also congratulates the runner-up winners: 2nd place – Guerry Hall of Franklin Co.; 3rd place Jamie Gay of Telfair Co.; 4th place – Darrell McCoy of Meriwether Co. and 5th place – Joel Davis of Jackson Co.

Guerry Hall won second place and a GFB cooler for his hay that had an RFQ of 176. Gay won third place and hay wrap donated by Vermeer with hay that had an RFQ of 160 and a dry matter intake value of 3.06%. McCoy won fourth place and hay wrap donated by B.J. Marks with hay that had an RFQ of 160 and a dry matter intake value of 3.05%. Davis won fifth place and hay twine donated by Jamie Tate with hay that had an RFQ of 151. The average RFQ score of the contest’s 30 entries was 130.96.

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