Marcus Wiseman of Clark County and Lauren Rowlette of Madison County were named 2019 Outstanding Farm Bureau Youth during the KFB annual meeting in December 2018.

As part of that honor, the two were given the opportunity to attend this year’s Congressional Tour to experience the organization’s efforts to advocate at a national level.

Wiseman, who has been to Washington once before, said he’s known at school as the “kid” who gets up early every morning to feed cattle and comes to school with smelly boots.

“They tease me a little about it, but they also respect it. I’ve had several kids at school tell me how much they appreciate what I do because it helps to feed them,” he said. “And if I can bring that much attention to my friends at school, it makes me want to work harder to get out there and tell other people that what we do as farmers is good, and we are here for them.”

Wiseman said, from an issues standpoint, there are many concerns in the ag industry including those with the dairy business and current-day burley tobacco growers.

“It’s harder to make money in those two industries today, as well as agriculture in general. But there are also opportunities such as with industrial hemp,” he said. “Being in Washington, as a Farm Bureau member, it’s important to be here to talk to legislators about our needs on the farm.”

Wiseman said having a support system such as Farm Bureau at the state and national levels is important to farmers, especially for farmers his age.

“I know at my age, if something goes wrong, I always want to call my mom. In agriculture, if something goes wrong, you have Farm Bureau to call on,” he said. “And if you can compare any organization to your mom, you know they have to be a good group.”