Matthew Heldreth of Wythe County has been named the 2020 Virginia Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers Achievement Award winner.
Heldreth was recognized on social media Nov. 30 after a virtual competition was held.
The Achievement Award honors young farmers who are successful in production agriculture and provide leadership on and off the farm. Heldreth and his wife, Shelbie, manage a beef cattle operation at Heldreth Farms, with 350 cow-calf pairs on 1,200 acres. He serves as chairman of the Wythe County Farm Bureau Young Farmers Committee.
Heldreth will receive one year’s use of a Kubota tractor of his choice; a farm utility vehicle from Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Co.; and cash awards of $1,000 from Farm Credit, $500 from VFBF and $500 from Chesterfield County Farm Bureau. He will compete for the American Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers & Ranchers Achievement Award at the 2021 AFBF Virtual Convention in January.
Sarah Large of Buckingham County was this year’s VFBF Achievement Award runner-up. Large and her husband, Frankie, finish an average of 20,000 breeding gilts annually for Smithfield Foods and own a cow-calf beef operation. She serves on the VFBF Women’s Leadership Committee and the Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom board of directors. She will receive $1,500 from Farm Bureau.
With 130,000 members in 88 county Farm Bureaus, VFBF is Virginia’s largest farmers’ advocacy group. Farm Bureau is a non-governmental, nonpartisan, voluntary organization committed to supporting Virginia’s agriculture industry.
