LANSING, Mich. – Twenty-four-year old Loren King has won the Young Farmer Excellence in Agriculture Award for 2021, awarded by the Michigan Farm Bureau and he placed high in the national competition at the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) annual meeting in Atlanta, Ga. in January.

As the state winner, King received a three month lease of a Michigan CAT Skidsteer, a $1,000 AgroLiquid gift certificate, up to $1,000 of business/estate consultation from Clark Hill, and an all expense paid trip to the AFBF annual meeting to compete in the national competition, sponsored by the Michigan Foundation for Agriculture. The Excellence in Agriculture Award is designed to recognize young people for their involvement in agriculture, leadership ability and participation in Farm Bureau.

According to King, the award he received is specifically for people who work in agriculture related jobs, but who are not getting most of their income from farming.

King said the national convention, held in Atlanta January 7-12, appeared to be well attended. “I wasn’t in any room where there weren’t a lot of people,” he said. King, who lives in the Lansing area now, is from Burr Oak, Mich., a small community in St. Joseph County in the corner of southwestern Lower Michigan. His family farms corn and soybeans there. King currently works for a company called Neogen, which specializes in different kinds of testing kits, most often related to agriculture and food. 

“I’m online managing the company’s presence on the internet, crafting stories,” he said. “I’m big on innovation and advocacy for the Michigan Farm Bureau. I’m also a certified drone pilot. I operate a news sharing service called UnSplash. I use my drone and photography equipment to provide accurate depictions of agriculture related news stories. Michigan State University Extension has used some of my photos, it’s really great.” King said he started the service after he became aware of complaints that pictures that went along with farm related news stories were not always accurate.

King had to give several presentations, both at the state meeting as well as the national convention. The final presentation was a 25 minute speech which, he said, was largely autobiographical. “I described my life and the things I’ve gotten to do so far,” he stated. “I placed second in the nation, it was a real blessing. I will receive a Farmall 50A Case IH tractor. It’s a big blessing to receive.” These tractors usually sell for tens of thousands of dollars. As for the future, King said one day he’d like to manage a research farm.

“What I think the research farm could do is acquire examples of the latest in agtech and test it,” he said. “Think of taking two autonomous tractors from different brands, running them in a field and comparing their results. I think this would help focus what we should study at universities by getting data on effectiveness. It also could function as a full digital farm with enough collection, providing data that farmers and researchers could access and draw conclusions from.”

King also has hopes of getting into politics at some point, such as running to be on the Michigan State University Board of Trustees. “Right now we don’t have anybody representing ag on the M.S.U. Board,” he stated. King would also like to serve as a county-level chair of the Michigan Farm Bureau committee that endorses certain candidates for office, especially the county drain commissioner, a position of some importance to farmers.