Vermilion Parish Couple Named Louisiana's Top Young Farmers

By Neil Melançon

Louisiana Farm Bureau

New Orleans—Aaron and Jamie Lee of Vermilion Parish have been named the 2024 Young Farmers and Ranchers Achievement Award Winners, the highest honor given by the Louisiana Farm Bureau to individual farmers each year.

The Lees won the award during the organization’s 102nd Annual Convention here at the Marriott on Canal St. Thursday night during the Organizational Awards. The young couple are sixth-generation sugarcane, livestock, rice, and crawfish farmers who will now go on to compete for the national title in January 2025 at the American Farm Bureau convention in San Antonio, Texas.

Aaron Lee expressed pride in the win but credited his success to his family.

“Over the past several years, I have begun transitioning from my dad’s helper to the one making the management decisions,” Lee said. “I believe I have come a long way and I’m proud of the progress that I’ve made under my father’s guidance. He trusts me to make the decisions, but I still value his opinion and know that I can always go to him for advice.”

Lee said even though he and his wife come from different backgrounds, her support was essential to the Lees’ operation. Jamie is a schoolteacher, while Aaron grew up on the farm. However, Jamie Lee has utilized the Ag in the Classroom program, so the farm is never far from her job.

“I serve as the parish chairperson as well as a member of the state Ag in the Classroom committee,” Jamie Lee said. “My biggest role in advocating for agriculture is that of an Ag Teacher. Being a farm wife and ag teacher allows me to bring a personal message on why production agriculture is so important in today’s world. I'm able to bring stories, and sometimes even soil, from home to help my students gain an understanding of agriculture in their area.”

“I knew from a young age that I was passionate about the farm and wanted to stay and work on the farm that my father and grandfather ran,” Aaron Lee said. “I would wake up every morning and jump in my dad’s truck to go ride in the tractors.

“We both ended up double majoring at LSU,” he added. “Her in Animal Science and Ag Education and I in Animal Science and Ag Business. Our senior year, she was awarded the Outstanding Senior in the College of Agriculture.”

As winners of the 2024 YF&R Achievement Award, the Lees receive a prize package including a $35,000 cash prize credit toward the purchase of a truck, courtesy of the Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Co., a trip to the American Farm Bureau Convention in San Antonio, Texas in Jan. 2025, courtesy of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation, $250 courtesy of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation and $250 from the Louisiana Farm Bureau Insurance Companies.