Sunbelt Expo offers special events for young farmers

Young Farmer members and their families are invited to attend the Sunbelt Expo on Wednesday, Oct. 17, for an array of special activities planned in their honor.

The Sunbelt Expo has had a long tradition starting in 1988 of welcoming Young Farmers and their families to the show.

The activities for Young Farmers planned for that day include a barbeque pork-cooking contest, a horseshoe pitching tournament, and a dinner with entertainment and valuable door prizes.

The barbeque cooking and the horseshoe tournament will take place Wednesday morning in a grassed area between the Expo’s farm shop and the equipment staging area for the harvesting and tillage field demonstrations. This area is just to the rear of exhibit blocks WC-10 and WC-11 in the western section of the exhibit grounds.

During the 2012 Sunbelt Expo, the Young Farmer chapter from Seminole County, Ga., will be defending its title as the champion barbeque team for the fourth consecutive year.

In fact, the Seminole County Young Farmers, under the direction of their advisor Mike Casey, have won the Que Fest pork barbeque competition during five of the past 11 years. Longtime members of the Seminole County championship barbeque team include Randy Earnest, Emerson Skipper and Stan Deal.

The barbeque entries are judged based on their appearance, tenderness, flavor and overall impression. The barbeque this year will be once again judged by enlisted airmen from Moody Air Force Base along with this year’s overall winner of the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award.

Other Young Farmer teams placing in last year’s 20^th annual barbeque cooking contest included Dooly County, Ga., second place; Dodge County, Ga., third place; Berrien County, Ga., fourth place; Crisp County Ga., fifth place; and Turner County, Ga., sixth place.

Young Farmer teams taking part in this year’s Que Fest are also eligible to enter a two-person team in the Expo’s annual horseshoe pitching tournament.