The smell of steak on the grill wafted through the 4-H center Thursday night with Audrain County Cattlemen’s Association cooking a dinner fit for a farmer.
Juicy rib eye, roasted potatoes, …
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The smell of steak on the grill wafted through the 4-H center Thursday night with Audrain County Cattlemen’s Association cooking a dinner fit for a farmer.
Juicy rib eye, roasted potatoes, green beans, salad and, of course, cake for dessert welcomed farm families and agribusiness supporters to the 50th annual Agriculture Appreciation dinner hosted by Audrain Agribusiness.
“The 50th celebration of any event is a large achievement,” said Shanda Nichols, chair of the Agribusiness Committee.
Every year at the Agriculture Appreciation dinner, the Dale H Schnarre Rural Citizen Award is presented to a farm couple who gives back to the community while truly embodying the spirit of agriculture.
“Dale was a very big part of Audrain County agriculture who passed away at an early age, so we give the award in honor and memory of him,” said Utterback.
This year, the committee recognizes Andrew and Clarissa Cauthorn of the Cattlemen's Association with the honor and barn quilt that was presented by last year’s recipients Jon and Dana Robnett.
“We don’t get taken by surprise very often and, usually, we’re in this room doing work,” said Clarissa. “So thank you for the surprise, thank you for the gracious award.”
Clarissa and Andrew own a cattle operation here in Mexico where they raise their three children: JR, Emmett and Carter Sue.
“We get to have conversations about all the places we’ve been and our favorite times are when we are in this room with our community and our loved ones,” said Clarissa. “We were those rednecks that had our wedding reception right here.”
The Agribusiness committee is comprised of Jeanette Bruns, Christa Baumhoer, Chelsea Baker, Dawn Miller, Sean Phillips, Mary Sobba, Tanner Smith and Melanie Utterback.
Utterback was chairman of the board for 10 years before deciding it was time to take a step back.
“Audrain County is a huge agriculture community,” said Utterback. “We just want to support agriculture, not only the producers in the community, but also the businesses that help each one of those producers.”
From feed stores to chemicals, seed and even banking, there are so many ways the community supports agriculture.
“Everybody plays a role, whether it’s a small role or a massive role,” said Utteerback. “Just being able to connect everybody with an evening like this is awesome.”
The Chamber of Commerce used to host these dinners many years ago.
“We ended up saying, ‘We can’t let this drop, we need to keep this going,’ and so Audrain Agribusiness took it over,” said Utterback.
Audrain Agribusiness strives to invite as many past award recipients to the annual dinner as they possibly can and they continued to pay tribute to those with a slideshow created by Sobba.
