
Apply today for the Iowa Farm Bureau Grow Your Future Award!
Are you a young Iowa entrepreneur with an innovative agricultural-related business?
Apply for Iowa Farm Bureau’s Grow Your Future Award for a chance to win a cash prize up to $7,500!
Cash Prizes
1st Place: $7,500
2nd Place: $5,000
3rd Place: $2,500
Congratulations to our 2021 Winners
1st Place ($7,500) - Iowa Cover Crop
2nd Place ($5,000) - Over the Moon Farm and Flowers
3rd Place ($2,500) - Farm Story Meats
The voting period has ended
Eligibility
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The applicant must have an existing ag-related for-profit business.
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The business must be new to this generation of farmers/created by the young entrepreneur applicant – not inherited from, or started in partnership with, a previous generation.
- The ideal candidate(s) is an individual(s) already involved in agriculture.
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Eligible agricultural fields include, but are not limited to, the sale of food and agricultural products, niche ag production, agritourism, or ag services. Ag technology businesses (e.g. software or app development) are excluded from this competition but are welcome to apply for the separate
Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge
.
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The applicant must be a member, in good standing, of his or her county Farm Bureau (in Iowa). Or applicant can
join
their local county Farm Bureau to become eligible to participate in the Grow Your Future Award.
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The applicant must be between the ages or 18 and 35 and shall not have reached his or her 36th birthday by January 31, 2021. If any business partner is 36 years or older, only those under 36 years old can participate in the application.
- Previous applicants are eligible to apply again unless they, or their business, was a prize winner in a previous year.
- Not eligible to compete are: current members of the IFBF Young Farmer Advisory Committee; current members of the AFBF Young Farmer & Rancher Committee; previous Grow Your Future winners or AFBF Rural Entrepreneurship Challenge/Ag Innovation Challenge competitors; IFBF directors, officers, employees or immediate family members of such individuals.
Timeline
- Applications are due by September 1, 2020
- Judges will select up to ten finalists.
- Online voting for finalists will take place from December 8 - 17, 2020. Voting will be open to the public.
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The Top 6 finalist will be announced by December 31, 2020.
- Top 6 finalist pitch-off will take place at
2021 Young Farmer Conference, January 29-30 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Pitch-off coaching for finalists will take place in early January 2021.)