VALDOSTA —
A reception dinner was held for 10 of the country’s best farmers Monday night at the James H. Rainwater Conference center, as judges prepared to crown one of the ten nominees as the Swisher Sweets and Sunbelt Expo’s Southeastern 2012 Farmer of the Year.
This year’s winner will receive a $15,000 check and a bright red Massey Ferguson tractor, with ample horsepower for working row crops. The award itself was the conceived by Swisher International in conjunction with the Sunbelt Expo as a way to say thanks to the American farmer, according to the president and CEO, J. Thomas Ryan, of Swisher International.
“The program has been running for 23 years,” said Ryan. “The award is essentially a tribute to farmers in the American Southeast. We set the criteria for judging, such as innovation in the field of agriculture and investment into the community. But, thank goodness, we don’t get involved with the judging.”
Award candidates, each from one of 10 southeastern states, were nominated by other farmers, said Ryan, and the nominees will also be judged by their colleagues.
The program began when the Swisher brand was looking for an innovative way to promote their premium chewing tobacco, said Ryan. The company wanted to market their premium product alongside farmers of similar caliber without limiting their gratitude to tobacco farmers, said Ryan.
The ten nominees for the Swisher Sweets and Sunbelt Expo’s Southeastern 2012 Farmer of the Year are Samuel (Lynn) Givhan of Alabama; Heath (Betsy) Long of Arkansas; Dale (Mary) McClellan of Florida; Barry (Alice) Martin of Georgia; Paul “Jim” (Ona) Sidebottom of Kentucky; William (Teresa) Spain of Mississippi; Gary (Lorene) Blake of North Carolina; Edward (Kathy) Rast Jr. of South Carolina; Steve (Karen) Dixone of Tennessee; Maxwell (Susan) Watkins of Virginia.
The 34th annual Sunbelt Expo kicks off today at 9:30 a.m. in Moultrie and is scheduled to continue until Oct. 18. For more information, visit the Sunbelt Expo’s home page at SunbeltExpo.com.
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Attendees gather at James H. Rainwater Conference Center Monday night for the Farmer of the Year banquet.
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