At the annual meeting on November 17, 2020, the members of the Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee elected Stasha Baldwin of Sidney to serve as Chair. Stasha is the co-owner of Wolf Creek Maple and serves on the Kennebec County Farm Bureau board. In addition to her YFR Committee Chair duties, Stasha will also serve on the State Board of Directors.
Stasha grew up in Winslow, ME with no experience in the agriculture industry except for the stories her grandmother used to tell about growing up on a farm. Her experience did not start until her first job at a boarding stable and it flourished when her Aunt and Uncle bought alpacas, which she helped to raise. Knowing she wanted to somehow work with animals and in the ag industry, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in animal science from the University of Maine. She now helps her significant other’s family run one of the larger cow-calf operations in the state and works for Genex as an insemination technician. In the spring, Stasha and her boyfriend produce maple syrup with the goal of expanding their agriculture operation every year.
Because Stasha did not come from an agricultural background, she knows first-hand how difficult it can be to want to become involved in the agriculture industry, but not know where or how to start. Her goal is to develop the Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee into a program that helps to enrich leadership skills among our young farmers to make them efficient Farm Bureau members as they transition into the organization. A secondary goal is to help these young farmers, as critical members of the agriculture industry, overcome obstacles that will allow them to reach their goals on their individual operations.
Stasha looks forward to expanding her own knowledge of the agriculture industry and help to develop policies that allow our farmers to thrive in this wonderful state that we call home.