WISCONSIN DELLS — Rachel Leege of Green County was chosen as the winner of the 2019 Wisconsin Farm Bureau Young Farmer and Agriculturist Discussion Meet contest at the organization’s 100th Annual Meeting in Wisconsin Dells on Dec. 8.

The Discussion Meet contest is a panel discussion in which Farm Bureau members between the ages of 18 and 35 are judged on their ability to express their ideas and opinions and reach a solution on current issues affecting agriculture. 

Leege is a science communications manager at the Alliance of Crop, Soil and Environmental Science Societies. Growing up, she spent time on her grandparents’ dairy farms.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in soil and crop science from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and is a former Collegiate Discussion Meet contestant and served as historian. Other Farm Bureau activities include attending the FUSION Conference and assisting with YFA activities for the Green County Farm Bureau.

Leege and her fiancé, John Schutte, are planning on transitioning to his family’s beef farm in northeast Iowa.

Leege will represent Wisconsin at the American Farm Bureau Annual Convention in Austin, Texas, in January. She also can participate in the 2021 YFA trip to Washington, D.C., and be a guest at GROWMARK’s 2020 annual meeting in Chicago and next year’s YFA Conference. Along with awards from Farm Bureau, Rural Mutual Insurance and GROWMARK, Leege was presented with a chainsaw courtesy of Blain’s Farm and Fleet.

The other Discussion Meet finalists were Kallie Jo Coates, Racine County, Jenny Leahy, Fond du Lac County, and Julie Sweney, Dodge County.