WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ohio – Abby Campbell, of Washington County, has been named winner of the 2025 American Farm Bureau Discussion Meet. Campbell is an Ohio Farm Bureau Young Agricultural Professional. The contest was part of the 106th farm bureau annual convention in San Antonio, Texas.

The contest is part of the Ohio Farm Bureau Young Agricultural Professionals and American Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers programs. Participants are ages 18 to 35, single or married, who are interested in improving the business of agriculture, learning new ideas and developing leadership skills.

The discussion meet simulates a committee meeting where discussion and active participation is expected from each participant. Participants build basic discussion skills, develop a keen understanding of important agricultural issues and explore how groups can pool knowledge to reach consensus and solve problems.

“From first glance, a lot of people make the misconception that discussion is similar to a debate competition or a public speaking competition,” Campbell said. “But in all reality, it pulls pieces from those.”

Campbell explained that a large part of the rubric evaluates cooperation with fellow committee members or ‌competitors, the ability to integrate statistics and facts from your policy, and the ability to serve as a moderator or a facilitator of the conversation.

“Everybody is trying to reach a consensus and to help move the meeting along but at the same time, everyone’s also trying to show that they have the best knowledge or that they have the best ability to lead the conversation,” she said. “There’s not cutting people off or someone dominating the microphone, unfortunately, that does happen, but the point of the contest is everyone is coming together to help solve a current issue in agriculture.”

The contest format features four people competing together at the same time. Competitors know the topic ahead of time and are seated at tables in front of three to six judges.

Competitors may make a 30-second uninterrupted, opening statement, followed by 20 to 30 minutes of open discussion on an issue impacting farming. At the end of the open discussion, every competitor is allowed to make an uninterrupted one-minute closing statement.

“Typically, the questions are open-ended and can be interpreted a couple of different ways,” Campbell said. “One of the first parts of the contest is analyzing the questions as a group. After we analyze the problem, we start to move into solutions.”

Judges score the meet using a rubric created by American Farm Bureau Federation. The rubric focuses on the opening statement, content, poise, professionalism, public speaking, the use of factual evidence, farm bureau policies and programs, cooperation, guiding the conversation, facilitating, and moderating, and then the closing statement.

“They’re scoring the applicants as they go through the conversation,” Campbell said.

Campbell was one of 32 competitors at the national level. Her Ohio competition was about one-third that number.

“It’s a smaller pool, Campbell said. “It depends on who applies and puts their name in the hat. I believe typically in Ohio, it’s between 10 to 12 members.”

Campbell made her way to San Antonio after several rounds of competition at the state level. “We had preliminary rounds at the annual ‌Ohio Farm Bureau meeting in December,” she said.

Following the two preliminary rounds, the final four contestants competed on stage during the Young Ag Professionals Winter Leadership Conference, where the national representative was chosen.

The national competition was held over the final three days of the convention. It featured two rounds on day one and a “Sweet 16” session on day two.

During the “Sweet 16” session, “There were four rooms of four with only one person from each room advancing to the Final Four,” Campbell said. The “Final Four” was held on the last day of the convention.

Campbell and her husband, Blake, are fourth-generation farmers in their sheep and swine operations. They specialize in growing and direct marketing cut flowers, pumpkins, produce, meat and wool products.

Campbell is an agriscience educator and FFA adviser at Fort Frye High School. She is also a member of the Ohio State College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences alumni board, the Barlow Independent Fair Board, and a teaching fellow with the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio.

Campbell credited her husband for encouraging her to enter the competition. “It was my husband, talking me into trying something because he saw that potential in me,” she said.

Her effort became a learning opportunity for her students as well. “I hope to do in the classroom every day with my students is encourage them to take a risk and try something new. I feel like it is my purpose to help students realize their potential and encourage them to try something they can end up being good at and learn from, and grow as a person.”

As the champion of the national contest, Campbell received a $35,000 credit toward a new Ford vehicle and a paid registration to the 2025 AFBF FUSION Conference in Denver, courtesy of Ford.