January – President’s Column

As the year ends, the season of winter meetings has kicked off with a big
bang. I’ve just returned home from the Illinois Farm Bureau annual meeting
in Chicago. As I reported last year, you will never be around such a fine
group of people as you are there. It’s an incredible experience. A few new
younger faces joined our delegate team in 2025, and it was great to get them
involved in such a historic event. This year, two Champaign County farmers
brought home the top awards. The Charles B. Schuman distinguished service
award and the young farmers achievement award. Among other county level
awards, your county farm bureau also won a fundraising auction for use of
the premier suite where we had a large legislative breakfast gathering with
state senators and representatives from around central Illinois and a huge
Sunday afternoon reception for our award winners. With guests attending
from every corner of the state, we hosted several gatherings with friends
and neighbors of Champaign County and all of Illinois. As we prepared for
the business at hand, we built long lasting, powerful relationships and made
connections that will benefit all of our members for years to come.
There is a new State President, and he is no stranger to the office. Philip
Nelson of LaSalle County will step back into the top spot and Evan Hultine
of Bureau County retained his vice president’s seat. Four new directors were
seated against incumbents, and one new director replaced a tenured director. Although there was excitement, anticipation, and anxiety around these
elections, one thing really stood out and that was the graciousness of those
who won as well as the respect and dignity shown to those who did not. It
was a civil event with results that expressed a desire for change. At the end
of the day (or maybe very early the next morning) I spoke with several who
supported opposing candidates and most were anxious to move forward,
repair images, work with other commodity groups and end the problems
we face elsewhere. It’s been a pleasure to have been able to make incredible
relationships with those people from across the state. I am reminded of a
statement made to me about a year ago by someone who said to me that the
“delegates always get it right”. Seems this year that may be more so than ever.
I’m happy to be back home delivering my winter grain contracts, pushing
snow, and getting final holiday plans together (well, actually I haven’t even
thought about the holidays, but we’ll set that aside for now.)
The new year is upon us. I remember quite some time ago when I was
a young boy and my grandfather was about my current age, he said with
disbelief, “I can’t believe it’s going to be 1980” …shows how old I am.
Well, I can’t believe it’s going to be 2026, but I can tell you that after this
past week and realizing that I am the older man in the crowd, that the future
is bright for IFB and your County Farm Bureau.
Doug Downs
CCFB President