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(ORLANDO, FLA.) - Rich and Lori Watson, who operate a 600-acre Gilchrist County dairy farm, have been named Outstanding Young Farmers & Ranchers by the Florida Farm Bureau Federation. The award was presented at the Federation's 60th Annual Meeting in Orlando Oct. 26-29.

The Watsons will take home a brand new Dodge truck, courtesy of Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance, and $500, courtesy of the Dodge Division of DaimlerChrysler Corporation. They will also receive an expense-paid trip to Reno, Nev. next January to represent Florida in the Outstanding YF&R competition sponsored by the American Farm Bureau Federation. There they will be competing for a Dodge Ram Pickup 3500, again courtesy of Dodge.

The Watsons operate their farm in partnership with Rich's dad, Craig Watson. The operation includes a rotational grazing dairy that milks 184 dairy heifers daily, grazing and hay fields, and a yard waste and land-clearing dispersal facility. This year, the Watsons expect to produce nearly 4.4 million pounds of milk.

Rich takes care of milking, breeding, feeding and maintaining the cow herd. He is also the current chair of Florida Farm Bureau's YF&R committee. Lori oversees the care and feeding of the calves. She earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education and was named Gilchrist County Teacher of the Year in 1999. They have two sons, A.J., 2, and Jacob, born in September.

Rich believes that Farm Bureau can be the glue that holds farmers together. "Farm Bureau helps by educating the public about farming and providing farmers who are experiencing problems with a means to participate in the process," said Rich. "This is especially true today because our problems are different than they used to be and our numbers are declining," he added.

Lori noted that farmers now have to do more than just farm. "Now you have regulation to worry about," she said. Lack of knowledge about farming is also a problem, according to Lori. "Ag in the Classroom is probably one of the most important things we do in agriculture," Lori said. "Kids who don't know about agriculture are going to grow up into adults who don't know about agriculture."

Finalists for this year's competition also included Mike and Marie Fussell, who own and operate 675 acres of farmland in Polk and Hardee counties, and Nate and Anna Jamison, who operate a 40-acre citrus nursery in Hillsborough County and a small herd of brood cows.

Participants in the Florida Farm Bureau Young Farmer and Rancher Program are active farmers between the ages of 18 and 35. The program's goal is to surface and train future Florida Farm Bureau Federation leaders.

The Florida Farm Bureau Federation is the state's largest general agricultural association with more than 143,000 member-families statewide. Headquartered in Gainesville, the Federation is an independent, non-profit agricultural organization and is not associated with any arm of the government. More information about the convention and Florida Farm Bureau is available on the organization's website, http://FloridaFarmBureau.org.