By Timothy Collins, Chair, Kern County Young Farmers & Ranchers
I would like to take this month to formally introduce and provide the backgrounds of our Kern County Young Farmers and Ranchers officer team. This team plans our meetings, runs our fundraisers, selects our scholarships, and does our social media on top of various other needs to keep YF&R functioning. I am in my second year as Chair and have the privilege of leading a great team. I am nearing the end of my fourth-year teaching high school Ag Diesel Mechanics at the Regional Occupational Center. I worked as a heavy equipment field mechanic for Quinn Company for the previous six years, and that job got me more involved in ag. I worked on various Caterpillar machines, but working on the Challenger, Fendt, and Massey Ferguson farm tractors pulled me into the ag side of the industry. Those machines tended to be more challenging to repair, but I liked being out in the fields and part of our essential endeavor to grow food.
Christine Johnson is our Vice Chair. She works as a real estate appraiser with a focus on agriculture properties. She started in an administrative support role eight years ago and recently received state certification. Christine’s interest in ag has grown by learning about the crops we grow here in Kern County and meeting people working in various industry aspects.
Our Secretary, Russell Todd is the County Executive Director for the Kern County USDA Farm Service Agency. His position leads the day-to-day operations of administering federal safety net and disaster assistance programs for farmers and ranchers throughout Kern County. Russell’s favorite aspect of working in the ag industry is seeing how ag connects to every aspect of society. Food is a part of everyone’s lives, and it is rewarding to be a part of an industry and in a county that truly feeds the world.
From a young age, our current Treasurer, Katie Verhoef, helped her family grow fruits and vegetables, raise pigs, and make homemade jams and jellies to sell at the farmer’s market. She graduated from CSUB with a bachelor’s in business administration with concentrations in Agriculture Business and Marketing. While completing her MBA, she worked for Grimmway Farms and started working for AC Foods in 2020. She still enjoys helping her family at farmers’ markets when not working or at a YF&R event. Being outdoors and helping provide safe food to the public are Katie’s favorite parts of working in the ag industry.
Social Media Chair Christine Etcheverry is an Account Executive in Sales and Customer Management at Bolthouse Farms. She received her bachelor’s degree in animal science and agriculture business from Oklahoma State University. Christine’s favorite part about working in the industry is making a difference. Whether you are working on research or continuing a long family tradition, jobs in the agriculture industry leave a legacy like no other. The possibilities are endless for feeding the masses and bringing food poverty to a halt.
This year we added officer positions for Clay Shoot Chair and Farmers Market Chair to take the lead on our major events of the year. Cory Camp jumped right in this year as the Clay Shoot Chair and now has his hard work behind him. Cory works as the Asset Manager for Kern Machinery after working for Wonderful Citrus as a Farming Supervisor. He has been around agriculture all his life and enjoys doing his part to help feed the world.
Our Farmers Market Chair is Katelyn Filkins. She is a Multi-Channel Sales Representative at Driscoll’s with over three years of experience in the berry industry. She has been involved in agriculture since a young age, including breeding, raising, training, and showing lambs at the Kern County Fair for ten years through 4-H. Working with people who are just as passionate about agriculture as she is and being exposed to different aspects of the ag industry is something she looks forward to!
I hope you can see our common interest in being part of agriculture. This is the industry that literally feeds the world, and no one can live without it. Let us take pride in being part of that.
Email: KernYFR@KernCFB.com
Instagram: @KernYFR
Facebook: KernYoungFarmersAndRanchers
