Taylor & Justin Roberts - Young Farmers and Ranchers

Young Farmers and Ranchers District Chair Taylor Roberts & her husband Justin Roberts tell us about what being a YF&R member means to them and their family. The couple live with their 3 kids just outside Weiser in District 4, which covers 10 counties in Western Idaho.

Verbatim:

“Hi, I'm Taylor Roberts.”

“And I'm Justin Roberts.”

“And I'm the District 4 YF&R Chair. I was elected in December of 2024,” said Taylor.

“We actually have some family members that serve on our local county board. And they kind of came after Justin first… (laughs) came after… they approached Justin first just to get him interested in, you know, county issues that were happening. And then he got interested. So, then he started bringing me along, and then I got extremely interested and so now here we are.”

“I grew up just South of here in New Plymouth. It's a little bit of a smaller town and I grew up around agriculture, but not in it. My dad is an electrician,” said Taylor.

“I grew up here,” said Justin. “My grandpa started a farm and ranch, and my dad partnered up with him to keep it going and hopefully someday that can be our goal as well.”

“So we've got three kids. Our oldest is Kasen, and he's 7. And then we have our daughter Margo, and she's 5. And then we've got the little one, Reina. And she just turned 1. And yes, they do wear dresses on the farm everyday. (laughs)Not by their parents choice,” said Taylor.

“You don't know what's in the future but having our kids grow up like this, like I did, it's something I love and think about all the time, so something I always wanted for my kids,” said Justin.

“Yeah, and every girl dreams of marrying a cowboy, right? It’s a dream come true. But it's awesome to be able to see my kids, you know, learn that hard working ethic. It's just been good to see from a young age, you know, their sense of responsibility,” said Taylor.

“There is a orange and white koi fish right there,” said Kasen.

“The koi fish will help keep the bugs and algae down in the summertime. It helps your animals,” said Justin.

“It’s right over there,” said Margo.

“We did it kind of for fun, just with the kids. Like, let's put some in there because I'd heard they helped,” said Justin.

“Mom, he's back. He's back. Look,” said Margo.

“We've actually seen that our tanks have been a lot cleaner,” said Justin.

“You know, we started out at the county level being chairs and it's been cool, the leadership opportunities we've gotten. Kind of cool to see how you can come from just being a farmer to this organization that helps grow and makes it so your voices can be heard,” said Justin.

“Yeah, we applied, and we're accepted as Ag ambassadors. Then we got the opportunity to go out to Washington DC,” said Taylor.

“Being a part of the YF&R you kind of notice, Oh, there's other young couples around the state that have goals like us and want to be involved in agriculture and they get you out of your comfort zone and open you up, and help you see that there really is opportunities out there to do what you want,” said Justin.

“This evening, we are going to the cobbler night rodeo. It's our District 4 event. We try to do two a year. So, this one’s more adult focused,” said Taylor. “We're going to have a dinner, some raffle prizes, some games, and a little social hour just to get to know people in our district.”

“The sense of community that Farm Bureau and the YF&R is giving us has just been incredible. Like, I just didn't think that there were other people like us, right, that were struggling like us, that were fighting for agriculture like us until we joined this organization,” said Taylor.

“And it's just been amazing to see the sense of community, and just the sense of, like of hopefulness that agriculture will survive this day and age, and just that you know that we're all in it together. And that when things go wrong, we can lean on each other.”