Joseph and Meredith Redman of Washington County Win Excellence in Agriculture

Joseph and Meredith Redman of Washington County are this year's Excellence in Agriculture winner for Tennessee Young Farmers & Ranchers. The results were announced during the banquet of the YF&R Fall Educational Tour in Loudon and McMinn counties.

"We're still in shock, but it's extremely special to us," said Joseph. "We've applied for this award several times and our operation has changed and grown a lot over the last several years, so it's an honor. We want to thank the good Lord above because we couldn't do this without Him and we also couldn't do this without a lot of our YF&R folks."

Born and raised on farms in East Tennessee, both Joseph and Meredith have roots that run extremely deep in agriculture. Together, they run a 100-head of registered and commercial angus cattle on Meredith's family's farm, in addition to both having fulltime careers - Joseph owning and managing his own lawncare and landscaping company and Meredith as an elementary school teacher. They are also both extremely involved in the other half of Meredith's family's farm, Grace Meadows, which has houses, three event/wedding venue spaces, a family-style restaurant and a newly opened creamery. The Redmans are proud to be parents of three girls and honored to get to raise them on the farm too.

The couple has been involved in YF&R for several years, serving on the local and state level. Both served on the state YF&R committee in 2023, and Joseph also is on the Washington County Farm Bureau Board of Directors.

"The support and the relationships we've made through YF&R is a big part of what makes this so special to us," said Meredith. "It truly feels like we've all worked together to get to this point, and we're just so thankful."

The Excellence in Agriculture Award recognizes young farmers who derive the majority of their income for an off-farm occupation, but who actively contribute and grow through their involvement in agriculture, their leadership ability and participation in Farm Bureau and other organizations. The Redmans competed against nine other county contestants from across the state to be named the state winner.

As state winners, the Redmans receive $1,000 from Farm Bureau Insurance of Tennessee, $500 from Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation, $1,000 in Tennessee Farm Bureau services, a John Deere Gator sponsored by Farm Credit Mid-America and a trip to the American Farm Bureau Convention in San Antonio, Texas in January 2025 where they will compete for national honors with other state winners.

Megan Southerland of Greene County was selected as this year's second-place winner. Third was Holly Harper of Smith County, fourth was Megan Jernigan of Coffee County and fifth was Jessica Hochreiter of Henry County.