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WAVE AG is pleased to announce that Sharon Furches, Second Vice President of Kentucky Farm Bureau will be the master of ceremonies at this year's WAVE AG Day to be held on July 22, 2021 in Hickman, KY near the riverwall.
Kentucky Farm Bureau has been a valued partner in the WAVE AG River Counties initiative from its inception and inaugural AG Day in 2017.
"I am very pleased to be chosen as the master of ceremonies and appreciate what the WAVE AG organization is doing in the river counties to promote and advocate on behalf of agriculture," says Sharon Furches.
Furches lives, eats, and breathes agriculture. Her enthusiasm for the industry is palpable, as she serves KFB armed with decades of firsthand farming experience.
Furches wants others in her region to know that farming is a viable industry that can sustain a family, and she hopes to always communicate that and advocate for it.
"I think agriculture has advanced a lot," she explained. "It's not just a simple life anymore. It is a big business, and marketing is such a huge piece of it now. It can sustain a family. It's important that other folks see that agriculture is able to do that. It's a big piece of who we are in Kentucky."
Furches is unmistakably proud of her upbringing on the farm, and she is truly a product of Kentucky Farm Bureau programs, having participated in Young Farmers, LEAD, the Women's Program, and various state committee roles. She was also appointed last year to the EPA Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Committee which gathers input from farmers who are directly affected by decisions in Washington, DC.
Furches was born and raised in Murray, Kentucky, an area where agriculture is -- and always has been -- king.
She grew up working in the field with her two sisters, parents, and extended family on their grain, tobacco, and cattle farm.
"It was back in the day when you still took meals to the field, and you ate on the tailgate of the truck," she said. "Back then, there weren't all these little places to stop and eat lunch. My mom would put lunch together and we'd all go to the field and spend the day."
She fondly remembers that it was the family's tobacco crop that paid for her first car.
"Big ticket items always came from your work on the farm," she explained. In high school, she met her husband, who was also a farmer.
"I knew if we married each other, I'd certainly be involved in farming for a long time to come," she said.
The couple stuck to their roots, and they're still at it today -- producing corn, soybeans, wheat, and canola on a 5,000-acre farm in Murray. She passed down her childhood on the farm to her kids, and now they're passing it onto theirs, Furches' four grandchildren.
"Farming encompasses every part of what we do and how we live, but that's a good thing for me," she said.
WAVE AG Day was postponed last year due to COVID, but the initiative never stopped. "We are excited to bring back WAVE AG Day and fulfill our promise to have the event in each of the four river counties over the past several years. Fulton County will host the event down in Hickman, KY this year and we could not be happier with the location," says WAVE AG Chairman Phillip Bean.
