Beth Rachut’s extensive involvement and leadership with the Mitchell County Farm Bureau as well as in her community of Osage has earned this young farmer the prestigious Young Farmer Leadership Award, presented during the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation’s (IFBF) 99th Annual Meeting in Des Moines, Dec. 5-6. 

The award, presented by IFBF, honors a young farmer who is under 35 years old and demonstrates outstanding leadership in Farm Bureau, agriculture and their community.  The award is in honor of Bob Joslin, IFBF president from 1986-1987, who was well known for his support and encouragement of young farmers. 

Rachut along with her husband, Steve, raises feeder cattle and grows corn, soybeans, retail sweet corn and commercial potatoes and onions. Rachut is the co-owner of an agricultural consulting business that assists farmers across Iowa in working through regulations and programs related to farming such as Manure Management Plans and Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans.

Rachut is a graduate of the Iowa Farm Bureau Ag Leaders Institute and member of IFBF’s F.A.R.M. Team, a group of farmers who work to connect with a non-farming audience to share about today’s farming practices and what those practices mean for the general public. She serves on the Mitchell County board of directors as vice president and served as the chair of the Mitchell County Farm Bureau Young Farmers Committee from 2007 to 2017. Rachut has also represented Mitchell County Farm Bureau at the Iowa Capitol to voice concerns from her county.

Rachut has also held a variety of other positions in agriculture including serving as a board member of Mitchell County Women, Land and Legacy, a member of the Osage FFA advisory board, as agricultural liaison for the Osage Community Schools Committee for Technical Trades and volunteering as the superintendent for the Mitchell County Fair Floral and Agricultural open class show.  

Rachut has been instrumental in planning events to connect her community to agriculture through farm tours, “Farm to Table” events and engaging with students inside the classroom by bringing in live baby animals. She’s also given back to her county by organizing donations to county food banks, providing opportunities to youth through her role as a Cattlemen’s Beef Queen advisor and being part of the Mitchell County Farm Bureau SHARE Fund committee, which aims to create valuable rural-urban partnerships and projects.

“This year we had a very impressive pool of young farmers nominated by their county Farm Bureaus. Beth stood out as a leader who has invested her time and energy locally to make her community and county grow,” said Mary Foley Balvanz, IFBF leadership training manager.

As the Young Farmer Leadership Award recipient, Rachut receives a $1,500 Home and Workshop certificate from award-sponsor John Deere, a 90-day no-payment and no-interest John Deere Financial Certificate up to $5,000, a $750 FAST STOP gift card from GROWMARK and expense-paid trips to the 2018 American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Annual Convention in Nashville and the 2018 GROWMARK annual meeting in Chicago.