MONTGOMERY — Two years ago, 18 Alabama farmers and ag professionals embarked on an intense, immersive and impactful leadership development experience.
Six institutes later, members of Class VI graduated from the Agricultural Leaders for Alabama (A.L.F.A. Leaders) program and were honored during the Alabama Farmers Federation Farm & Land Conference in Chattanooga.
The class included Trevor Collier, who raises poultry, cattle and Tennessee walking horses in Lauderdale County. The Rogersville farmer said the program exceeded expectations for personal and professional growth.
“It’s been more than leadership,” said Collier, 32. “It’s been about building relationships. Everything we did had a purpose.”
That’s important for a class packed with full-time farmers who spent more than 40 days with each other — and away from their farms and families.
Their inaugural institute in Montgomery laid a strong foundation and delved into Federation structure and impact, including an up-close look at grassroots policy development.
“We learned that you can bring up something at the county level, fine-tune the policy and then see it enacted at the state or federal level,” Collier said. “We can make a difference in our communities from our farms.”
Subsequent sessions introduced the class to state government and national advocacy.
During a week in Washington, the class met with decision-makers such as U.S. House Ag Committee Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.)
That sparked a fire in Whitney Haynes. Her family grows row crops, raises cattle and operates a direct-to-consumer farm business in Fairview in Cullman County.
“I like to explain the what and the why,” said Haynes, 40, also a high school teacher. “I like for ag to be seen and for people to hear what we have to say. I take for granted that everyone lives like us, but they don’t.”
The class’s focus on advocacy extended into a capstone project about workforce development. They used individual and collective strengths, plus the Federation’s vast network, to craft and propose a unified resource to encourage youth to pursue jobs related to farming.
A.L.F.A. Leaders Class VI graduates from North Alabama are:
- Trevor Collier, Lauderdale County
- Nic Cornelison, Jackson County
- Cara Clough, Marshall County
- Ali Gotcher, Colbert County
- Whitney Haynes, Cullman County
- Isaac Jones, Cherokee County
- Josh McCutcheon, Blount County
