William Thiele of Thiele Dairy Farm in Cabot won the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau's Discussion Meet competition. The award was announced last weekend during the bureau's 70th annual meeting.

For the second consecutive year, the Butler County Farm Bureau won the top two annual awards from the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.

The awards were presented last weekend during the state Farm Bureau's 70th annual meeting, which was held virtually due to COVID-19 gathering restrictions.

The Premier County award, the top award, and the Overall Achievement Award for county bureaus with 401 or more members were presented to the Butler County bureau for the second year in a row.

In addition, Butler County won two President's Awards in the areas of Leadership Development and Agriculture Education.

The four awards are the most won this year by a county bureau with 401 or more members.

“It's a pretty big deal — first place across the state,” said Larry Voll, county farm bureau president. “It's pretty great. We're pretty excited.”

He credited the awards to the hard work put in by bureau members, and said state bureau officials have taken notice of the county bureau's achievements.

“We're kind of the talk of the state right now with the quality of people that we have working their butts off,” Voll said.

The Overall Achievement Award recognizes outstanding performance in the six program areas including membership.

“We did pretty good this year considering there weren't a lot of activities going on because of the coronavirus,” said Evelyn Minteer, a membership committee member for the county bureau.

She also gave credit for the awards to bureau members.

“We have a good group. They congratulated me, but I said, 'It's all of us.' We all work together. Things have been going good for us.”

Rick Ebert, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau president, said county bureaus across the state rose up to meet the challenges presented by COVID-19, but he singled out the county bureau.

“Butler County Farm Bureau demonstrated, throughout this year, the highest level of excellence in numerous program areas to earn our highest county Farm Bureau award,” Ebert said.

County bureau members of the Young Ag Professionals won individual awards.

William Thiele of Thiele Dairy Farm in Cabot won the Discussion Meet competition and Alan Davis of Davis Dairy in Chicora won the social media award for producing a five-minute video about his family farm.

Thiele said he was told he won the Discussion Meet, which was held in October at the state bureau office in Camp Hill, but he was asked to keep the news quiet until the annual meeting.

Discussion meet contestants had to analyze agricultural problems and decide on solutions. The discussion meet is designed to help young agriculture professionals build communication skills, develop an understanding of important agricultural issues and explore how groups can pool resources to reach a consensus and solve problems.

All the contestants were given a list of five questions, but the one they had to discuss was revealed 10 to 15 minutes before the meet started, Thiele said.

“They judge you on how well you speak. I guess they fact check you to make sure you're up to date and you're current on Farm Bureau policy,” he said.

The meet wasn't a debate. It was an enjoyable 25-30 minute discussion with no yelling, he said.

“I've watched them before and I thought, 'Gee, I don't know if want to do that. It seems daunting.' I enjoyed it. It was a good thing to be part of.”