Fusion Conference 2025

Hundreds of farmers and ranchers from across the state attended the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation Fusion Conference on December 2nd in north Idaho at the Coeur d-Alene Resort. The “Fusion” brought together members of the Promotion & Engagement Committee and the Young Farmers and Ranchers program. The event included tours, speakers, discussion contests, and breakout sessions and networking designed to give attendees new ideas that they can put to use when they return to their farms and ranches.

Verbatim:

“Welcome to our future convention, welcome, welcome! Thank you for being here! Record turnout,” said YF&R State Chair Mitchell Searle.

 “The advantage of doing P&E and YF&R conferences together is you bring a larger pool of like-minded individuals together to advocate for agriculture and learn from each other. We got the younger aspect, and the P&E aspect that's more, maybe more seasoned, but just as passionate,” said Searle.

“Huge benefits to go together. It's another way to engage people, to get people involved and to really link arms, and work for the common good,” said P&E State Chairs Tess and Lance Zollinger.

“And there are a lot of synergies, I mean we're interested in the same thing, trying to make sure people of all ages are interested in agriculture and Farm Bureau, that's our goal is to advocate for this. And so doing it together just aligns really well because we have common goals,” said Zollinger.

“We have our competitive events happening, whether that's the excellence in Ag presentations and interview process, the Achiever, and then the discussion meet, the YF&R and the collegiate chapter discussion meets,” said Searle. “So we've got those four competitive events happening as well as the breakout sessions. We're up here in North Idaho and so we're spotlighting some of the unique aspects of of Ag up here, the timber industry and the presentations they're doing and the learning trailer with the simulated machine controls and operating the skidders and the feller bunchers, all that logging equipment. That's something unique to North Idaho that I really enjoyed seeing.”

“We went on a few tours. We got familiar with the timber industry. The tour piece was fun, just to network together and get to know and learn more,” said Zollinger.

“We want to make sure we have plenty of learning going on, so there will be various leadership learning sessions on a variety of different topics that relate to the industry and leadership and being effective in the programs that we offer in the counties.”

“Topics like marketing an ag business, or how to run an effective county meeting, just a variety of topics and topics that have come from our state boards that represent all the districts around the state and what matters to our members,: said Zollinger.

“A lot of the evenings after the banquet are spent in networking and getting to know other people, games and activities. Last night we had the roping dummies and the karaoke and it's fun to see that side of people's personalities. And their musical talents, or lack thereof, when singing karaoke,” said Searle.

“We have a convention committee that's made-up of the members, and so their input is what helps us plan this. And then the feedback we get from this Convention will help us plan for next years and try and make it better and better every year.”

“We try and plan this conference so that it's got something for everybody. Whether it was the mental health aspect and learning how to help those that are struggling, especially during these hard economic times or using drones in AG and some of the advantages that brings, farm succession, and no matter who you are, you can come, you can learn, it's something you can take back home to your operation and apply it,” said Searle.

“The whole point of having a conference is not just to come and have a good time. It's about networking, meeting people and also how do I take this home to my county and how do I implement it? How do I make things run better based off of what I've learned?” said Zollinger.