YF&R profiles

The Tubbs family likes to ride together--Putnam photo

The Tubbs Complete their First Year as YF&R Chairmen

Idaho Falls--Austin Tubbs and wife Maysi run a ranch in the foothills outside of Malad, Idaho. They are completing their first full year as YF and R chairmen. I caught up with Austin at the annual Leadership conference in Idaho Falls.

What’s the purpose of these Leadership conferences?

This is our annual YF&R leadership conference, we hold this every year and we go to different locations throughout the state. The purpose behind the event is to bring Young Farmers and Ranchers from our state together to help build leadership skills, to help them understand what Farm Bureau can do for them, their operations through legislation, through various organizations and also to have a good time. We get to meet each other and it builds you up so that you don’t get discouraged in your operation. We are all in agriculture together.

Tells us about the theme of this year’s conference?

Standup and Speak out is the theme of this year’s conference. We had felt that it’s a brave new world and the media seems to play a bigger role in the world today. We feel that agriculture is going to be left behind or there maybe misconceptions of agriculture; so our farmers and families involved in agriculture need to take a stance and tell our story. People don’t understand what agriculture is anymore. We need to seize the opportunity to tell them by different means, such as Facebook, or in other social Medias, our story.

Over the past year what’s been your greatest challenge?

We have a great committee, we haven’t had any major challenges in the YF&R program, and in fact this is our biggest conference we have ever had. We contribute that to our committee but more important to the county chairmen that get down and do the hard work of getting people involved with YF&R.

Have you experienced any enlightenment with this job?

Oh, you know it’s been a pleasure! Being a chair, I get to sit on the IFBF State Board and it’s a great opportunity to learn all aspects of Farm Bureau and see how things evolve. To me, it’s just been a learning experience and it’s something I enjoy.