Cody and Jessica Grills of Dyer County are the 2023 Tennessee Young Farmers of the Year. The announcement was made during the Tennessee Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers Summer Conference at the Farm Bureau Expo Center in Lebanon, Tenn.
As a ninth-generation farmer, the Grills farm with Cody’s family in Newbern. The family farm is a diversified row crop operation consisting of more than 3,000 acres of corn, soybeans and occasionally winter triticale crop used for seed production with Tennessee Farmers Cooperative. Also, the couple recently has started raising honeybees with the hopes of increasing yields on their soybean fields. The Grills are proud to be raising the tenth generation on the farm with their son, Rhys.
Cody and Jessica have been extremely active in YF&R on the state and local level for several years. Jessica served on the state YF&R committee 2019 and 2020, and last year Cody was named the state Environmental Stewardship winner. Both have been involved in agricultural organizations such as the Tennessee Soybean Association and the American Soybean Association.
The Grills were named this year’s winners based upon farm and financial records from 2022 as well as their leadership on the farm, in their community and in Farm Bureau. The couple competed against 17 other county contestants to be named the state winner.
As state winners, the Grills receive a year’s free use of a Case IH tractor up to 150 hours. They also receive $1,000 and a Kubota RTV from Tennessee Farm Bureau, an insurance policy to cover the tractor for one year from Farm Bureau Insurance of Tennessee, $1,000 in qualified Farm Bureau services and a trip to the American Farm Bureau Convention in Salt Lake City in January 2024 where they will compete for national honors with other state winners.
Phillip and Whitney Berry of Wayne County are the second-place winners in this year’s competition. Phillip owns a poultry operation and raises beef cattle and hay on 1,300 acres. He also serves as Wayne County Farm Bureau president and has been extremely active on the local level for many years. As second-place winner, the Berrys receive free use of a Kubota tractor up to 250 hours, as well as the same cash awards from Tennessee Farm Bureau and service companies.
The 2023 District Achievement Award winners are:
- District I – Cody and Jessica Grills of Dyer County.
- District II – Phillip and Whitney Berry of Wayne County.
- District III – Riley and Macy Mason of McMinn County. Riley operates his family’s dairy farm consisting of 160 lactating cows milked from DeLaval robotic milkers. He also raises corn and hay for silage, as well as seed corn and soybeans for feed.
- District IV – Wyatt Montooth of Overton County. Wyatt and his family farm 450 acres with commercial cows and stockers as well as bale hay. He is currently a student majoring in agriculture at Tennessee Technological University.
- District V – Aaron and Mackenna Loy of Jefferson County. Aaron and his family own a diversified livestock operation with commercial beef cattle and a hog finishing business where they sell meat directly off the farm. They also raise hay for the livestock and Aaron serves as the Jefferson County Farm Bureau president.
