Carson Maricle Named Collegiate Discussion Meet Champion

KEARNEY, NEB. – Carson Maricle of Boone County took top honors at the 2025 Nebraska Farm Bureau (NEFB) Collegiate Discussion Meet. The award was announced Dec. 9 at Nebraska Farm Bureau’s 108th Annual Meeting and Convention banquet in Kearney.  

Maricle earned the top score during the final round of NEFB’s Collegiate Discussion Meet held during the Nebraska Farm Bureau Annual Meeting and Convention. The contest aims to simulate a committee meeting rather than a debate, where competitors offer solutions to timely problems facing agriculture.  

Maricle is a senior at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln studying Agricultural Economics with minors in both the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program and Animal Science. He plans to graduate in December and go back to work on his family farm east of Albion, where they grow corn, soybeans, hay, and raise cattle, and sheep.

Farm Bureau student members can compete in the Collegiate Discussion Meet through their senior year of college. As the Nebraska winner, Maricle will receive $250 and an all-expense paid trip to the 2026 American Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers and Ranchers Leadership Conference in Portland, Oregon, March 13-16, 2026. There, he will compete with other state winners at the national level.

The Nebraska Farm Bureau is a grassroots, state-wide organization dedicated to supporting farm and ranch families and working for the benefit of all Nebraskans through a wide variety of educational, service, and advocacy efforts. Nearly 55,000 families across Nebraska are Farm Bureau members, working together to achieve rural and urban prosperity as agriculture is a key fuel to Nebraska’s economy. For more information about Nebraska Farm Bureau and agriculture, visit www.nefb.org.