Chris and Patricia Haskins of Pittsylvania County have been named winners of the 2016 Virginia Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers Achievement Award.

The Haskinses are VFBF Young Farmers Committee members and Pittsylvania County Farm Bureau Young Farmers Committee members. They were recognized Nov. 30 at the VFBF Annual Convention in Hot Springs.

The Achievement Award honors young farmers who are successful in production agriculture and provide leadership on and off the farm. Chris Haskins is a fourth-generation farmer growing flue-cured, burley and experimental biofuel tobacco. He also manages an Angus/Hereford cow-calf operation. Patricia Haskins works part-time as a small animal veterinarian and with the cattle on the farm. She is a former chairman of the Pittsylvania County Farm Bureau Women’s Committee. The couple previously have been recognized as runners-up for the VFBF Young Farmers Achievement Award.

The Haskinses will receive up to 200 hours’ use of a Kubota M-series tractor from Kubota Tractor Corp.; a new Stihl chain saw from Mid-Atlantic Stihl; $500 from Virginia’s Farm Credit associations; $500 from Chesterfield County Farm Bureau; and a John Deere Gator utility vehicle, courtesy of Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Co. They also will receive a travel package to the 2017 American Farm Bureau Federation Annual Convention in Phoenix, where they will compete for the AFBF Young Farmers & Ranchers Achievement Award.

Stephanie Cornnell of Prince William County was this year’s runner-up. She and her husband, Kenny, live in Nokesville. She operates Kettle Wind Farms LLC, a turf grass, grain and dairy operation, with their family. She serves on the Prince William-Fairfax County Farm Bureau board as the Young Farmers Committee chairman.

Cornell will receive $500 from Farm Bureau and a travel package to the 2017 AFBF Annual Convention.
 
With 126,000 members in 88 county Farm Bureaus, VFBF is Virginia’s largest farmers’ advocacy group. Farm Bureau is a non-governmental, nonpartisan, voluntary organization committed to supporting Virginia’s agriculture industry and preserving the Virginia way of life. View more convention news as it becomes available at
 VaFarmBureau.org/NewsVideo/ConventionNewsroom.aspx, or get updates via Twitter (@vafbnews).
 
Contact Greg Hicks, VFBF vice president of communications, at 804-290-1139.