Award honors memory of late Arkansas Farm Bureau President Stanley Reed

ArFB Vice President Rich Hillman, ArFB President Randy Veach, Trent Dabbs and Charlene Reed.

Trent Dabbs is the 2019 recipient of the Stanley E. Reed Leadership Award from the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation. Dabbs accepted the award Dec. 4, during the organization’s 85th annual conference at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. Arkansas Farm Bureau President Randy Veach and Charlene Reed, widow of ArFB’s late president presented the award.

Dabbs, 40, has served on Arkansas County’s board of directors and is presently its county president. He is also a graduate of Farm Bureau’s President’s Leadership Council and was the former chair of the Young Farmers & Ranchers state committee. He was taken by surprise when his name was called during the award presentation.

“I’m very excited. It was a surprise that I wasn’t expecting,” Dabbs said. “It feels good to be recognized for your leadership and service to Farm Bureau.”

The Stanley E. Reed Leadership Award was established to honor the memory of the late Arkansas Farm Bureau president and is awarded to an active member, 36 to 45 years of age, for outstanding leadership within their county Farm Bureau and community. It is intended to honor a county leader who has demonstrated the leadership qualities that were evident in Stanley Reed’s life and will help lead Farm Bureau into the future.

Dabbs is a fourth-generation row-crop farmer south of Stuttgart. He grows corn, rice and soybeans on 3,000 acres with his father, Terry, a Farm Bureau state board member. His favorite crop to grow is corn.

“Being from eastern Arkansas everybody would expect me to say rice. Rice is the most challenging and most rewarding for putting all of the time and effort to get it out,” Dabbs said. “Here, recently, we’ve really got into growing corn. I really like doing it. It’s something different. It’s one of those crops that you better get it right to start with. I like the precision of it.”

Trent and his wife Kristian have two children, Finlee, 7, and Erin, 3.

Arkansas Farm Bureau created its leadership award in 2011 in honor of Stanley Reed, who was president of Arkansas Farm Bureau from 2003-2008. He died in an automobile accident in July 2011.

Arkansas Farm Bureau is a nonprofit, private advocacy organization with almost 190,000 families throughout the state working to improve farm and rural life.

For more information, contact:

Rob Anderson
(501) 228-1640
rob.anderson@arfb.com

or 

Gregg Patterson
(501) 228-1282
gregg.patterson@arfb.com