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Froehlichs win Florida Farm Bureau’s
Outstanding Young Farmer & Rancher Award
(ORLANDO, Fla.) – Spring and Jay Froehlich
drove away in a new Dodge Ram quad cab truck as winners in the
Florida Farm Bureau Federation’s Outstanding Young Farmer
and Rancher (YF&R) competition. They were recognized at
the Federation’s annual meeting Oct. 28 at the Coronado
Springs Resort. The couple also received an expense-paid trip
to the American Farm Bureau annual meeting in Jan. 9-11, 2005
in Charlotte, N.C. There they will represent Florida in the
national YF&R competition. The winner of the national competition
will receive a Dodge Ram 3500 Quad Cab 4x4 SLT pickup and an
Arctic Cat® 454 4x4 ATV.
The Froelichs manage farms in Putnam County. Jay
grows potatoes on 400 irrigated acres while Spring raises two
varieties of ferns on 175 irrigated acres. The couple is exploring
the possibility of diversifying into a fish farming operation.
“We hope to raise freshwater fish in 1,500
gallon tanks and develop a system that will allow us to recycle
water for fern or potato irrigation,” explained Jay. “We’re
working on permitting issues at this time and hope to have this
operation up and running within the next couple of years.”
In addition to these aggressive farming operations,
Jay and Spring are also raising two young daughters, Jade, 6,
and Havyn, 2.
Florida Farm Bureau Federation is the state’s
largest general-interest agricultural organization with more
than 152,000 member-families, statewide. For more information
on the annual meeting, visit http://FloridaFarmBureau.org.
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Florida
Farm Bureau Federation