By Kristen-Oaks White

Louisiana Farm Bureau

Frankie and Mallory Sotile of Ascension Parish have been named the 2025 Young Farmers and Ranchers Achievement Award Winners, the highest honor given by the Louisiana Farm Bureau to individual farmers each year.

The Sotiles won the award during the organization’s 103rd Annual Convention at the Marriott on Canal St. Thursday night during the Organizational Awards. The young couple are fourth-generation sugarcane farmers who will now go on to compete for the national title in January 2026 at the American Farm Bureau Convention in Anaheim, California.

As fourth-generation farmers, the Sotiles represent both deep roots and fresh vision.

“The fertile farm ground we farm on is due to the river,” said Frankie Sotile. “And, you know, I think one big challenge we face is industrial plants moving in… They want to set up shop. And losing the farmland, the fertile farmland, to things like that is a real challenge we face.”

Sugarcane has been in the Sotile family for more than a century, but each acre now carries new weight as development encroaches. Owning land is rare—and hanging on to what they’ve got is essential.

“An easy problem would be to own the land,” Frankie said. “But that's difficult. Near impossible—the land just doesn't come up. When you lose land, you’ve got to tighten your bootstraps and just become more efficient… You have to adapt.”

That adaptability is part of what sets the Sotiles apart. Frankie, who calls himself “a little new school,” has modernized the farm with precision agriculture and updated practices—though not without some friendly generational tension.

“I've tried to modernize everything we've done out here,” he said. “My dad is still actively out here with us, and he's a little bit more old school. It's a little difficult to convince him, but whenever the productivity is there and your yields are showing good, it speaks for itself.”

While Frankie focuses on the fields, his wife, Mallory Sotile, is the behind-the-scenes force that keeps the family moving forward. A first-generation farmer by marriage, she juggles a career in healthcare while raising their two young sons and offers steady emotional support when the challenges of agriculture hit hard.

“I try to talk to him… be a support for him,” she said. “It might seem like a huge deal that day, but next week you're going to have forgotten about it. And those long hours are all worth it.”

Frankie agrees: “It’s just good to get somebody with a different perspective, conversate about it and get it off your chest. And she always has good words of advice to help me out and cheer me up.”

Family is at the core of everything the Sotiles do—even when it’s hard.

“It's a challenge,” Mallory said. “Working with your family is probably one of the biggest blessings and most difficult things you could ever do… We all know sometimes you need to go to work to get away from the family and go home to get away from your work.”

But there are moments that make it worth it—especially when their sons can hop on a tractor with their father, grandfather, and even great-grandfather.

L-R: Louisiana Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Chair Nicholas Gerace, Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company President/CEO Richard Sims, 2025 Achievement Award Winners Frankie and Mallory Sotile, Louisiana Farm Bureau President Richard Fontenot and Louisiana Farm Bureau Insurance Companies Vice-President of Sales and State Sales Manager Kirk Hendry.

“Some weekends I tell him I wish he had a 9-to-5 because he sometimes misses out,” Mallory admitted. “But during harvest, when the boys get to come out here and ride in the tractor on the weekends… I mean, every little boy loves tractors. How many get to ride on them with their dad, their grandpa, their great grandpa?”

Frankie sees those moments as more than memories. They’re hope.

“I like to see his passion developing as his imagination,” he said of his first son, Frankie the fourth. “It’s a good feeling that he shows some interest.”

"I just want them to be happy and learn the same lessons that I have,” Frankie added. “I think as long as they take away the values that this provides you; I’ll be pleased with that."

At the end of the day, for the Sotiles, farming is more than a job. It’s an identity—and a promise to the next generation.

“I'm just proud of him for his resilience,” Mallory said. “It’s hard to do that in today’s world—to come back and work with your family in a very strenuous, time-consuming, hot job that tests your patience on a daily basis. I’m just proud of his commitment to his family. Really.”

Frankie adds, “The lessons you learn from being out here, I think that outweighs anything. No matter what situation you're in or challenge you face, being out here on the farm and knowing how to adapt—that’s invaluable.”

As winners of the 2025 YF&R Achievement Award, the Sotiles 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 Anaheim, California in Jan. 2026, courtesy of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation, $250 courtesy of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation and $250 from the Louisiana Farm Bureau Insurance Companies.

Ascension Parish Couple Named Louisiana’s Top Young Farmers