Clay Patton of Dawson County Wins the Nebraska Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Discussion Meet Competition
KEARNEY, NEB. – Dawson County Farm Bureau member, Clay Patton of Lexington is the winner of the 2022 Young Farmers and Ranchers (YF&R) Discussion Meet competition. The award was announced Dec. 6, at the “We Love Our Members” luncheon during Nebraska Farm Bureau’s (NEFB) 105th Annual Convention held Dec. 4-6 in Kearney.
Patton received the top score of the contestants who advanced to the final round of the Discussion Meet contest. Rather than debating, contestants work to develop a solution to a problem being discussed, building on each other’s contributions. Competitors in the annual contest must be prepared to speak on several current agricultural related topics; the selected question is announced a short time prior to the contest round.
Patton is a Farm Broadcaster with KRVN. He lives on a small acreage with his wife Janelle who is a vet tech in their community. They grow hay and raise goats.
Patton competed with three other contestants, Amy Musgrave of Ong, Joe Melnick of Ayr, and Lydia Vinton of Whitman. Musgrave is a Clay County Farm Bureau member. She and her husband operate a diversified livestock operation. She also works as a statistician, assisting in the estimation and production of various United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports. Melnick is an Adams/Webster County Farm Bureau member who is an agribusiness professional, working for Green Clover Seed. He currently serves on the Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee. Melnick, along with his wife Jaden and their son Jedidiah, have a small acreage where they raise goats. Vinton is an Arthur County Farm Bureau member. She is a recent graduate with a degree in Agriculture Education. She is an agricultural education teacher in Ogallala. Vinton lives on the family ranch where she helps with the cow/calf day-to-day operations.
Farm Bureau members between the ages of 18 and 35 can participate in the Young Farmers and Ranchers Discussion Meet competition. As a Nebraska winner, Patton will receive $500 and an all-expenses paid trip to the American Farm Bureau Annual Convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico January 6-11, 2023, to compete in the contest at the national level. For more information, visit www.nefb.org/yfr.
