Clays win achievement award

MFB President Blake Hurst presents Andy and Kacey Clay with  the Young Farmers and Ranchers Achievement Award at the Farm Bureau annual meeting held at Tan-Tar-A Dec. 7-10, 2013.
MFB President Blake Hurst presents Andy and Kacey Clay with the Young Farmers and Ranchers Achievement Award at the Farm Bureau annual meeting held at Tan-Tar-A Dec. 7-10, 2013.

Andy and Kacey Clay, Jamestown, won the Missouri Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers (YF&R) Achievement Award during the organization's 99th annual meeting Dec. 10 at the Lake of the Ozarks.

The Clays received a plaque recognizing their farm management and leadership skills from MFB President Blake Hurst during the annual YF&R breakfast. They also received a $500 check from the Missouri Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture, a $500 check from Ford Motor Company, and one year or 350 hours free use of a Kubota "M" series diesel tractor from the Kubota Corporation.

The farm couple also won a trip to San Antonio, Texas, to represent Missouri at the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) YF&R Achievement Award Contest this January. The contest is part of the AFBF Annual Meeting. There they will compete for the grand prize of a new 2014 Chevrolet or GMC truck and runners-up prizes of a Case IH Farmall tractor, $500 in Stihl Farm merchandise and $2,500 cash.

The Clay's farm was originally homesteaded in 1816. Andy is currently the seventh generation to live on and farm the land. Andy and Kacey have three children, a son who is five and twins, a boy and a girl, who are three. Kacey owns and operates a beauty salon in their home town and also teaches part-time at a cosmetology school in a nearby city. In addition, she helps with accounting duties in the farm office. Andy owns a small sporting goods business, selling deer stands, game cameras, and other hunting equipment. He cofounded a local chapter of a sportsmen's organization that raises money to fund hunting trips for disabled youth. Andy studied ag business in college and Kacey received her degree in cosmetology and has earned an instructor training license.

Second place went to Shawn and Kelly McEwen, Leonard. Third place was awarded to Trent and Rebecca Steinhoff, Trenton.

The Foundation for Agriculture, Ford Motor Company and Kubota Corporation are major sponsors of the Missouri Farm Bureau YF&R contests.