Rice Festival Picks Junior Farmer Of The Year

The young man picked to be the Rice Festival's Junior Farmer of the year this year comes from a long family history of people dedicated to the industry.

The 82nd International Rice Festival will take place this October 18-21 in Crowley, and 19-year-old Benjamin Joseph Faulk is this year's Junior Farmer of the Year.

Multiple family members have been recognized over the years for being Farmer of the Year including the following people:

• Grandfather Leonard "Buck" Leonard in 1985
• Great Uncle Edwin Leonards in 1979
• Grandfather Chester Faulk in 1970
• Great Grandfather William W. "Bill" Walton in 1962
• Great Grandfather Louis Leonards in 1957

Benjamin has spent is life on his family's farm which is south of Crowley. As a young lad, Benjamin was tasked with bush hogging grass, plowing fields and even operation grain carts when it came time to harvest crops.

The family farm grow rice and soybean crops, and they rotate those commodities with crawfish.

Benjamin graduated from Notre Dame in Crowley, and he is studying agribusiness at LSUE.

The young man knows virtually every aspect of Faulk Farms having worked in each capacity as the need arose. He did all of this while earning an overall 3.6 grade point average.

He is the son of Gretchen Leonards Faulk and Thomas Faulk, and he along with his siblings have experience in the needs of their 6,800 acre farm.

In a press release it is stated that,

"Benjamin was chosen by the USDA Farm Service Agency from a group of young deserving men nominated by the FFA/Ag Teachers from area schools."

Benjamin was chosen by the USDA Farm Service Agency from a group of young deserving men nominated by FFA/Ag Teachers from area schools.