The 81st International Rice Festival will recognize Michael Paul Zaunbrecher as the 2017 Junior Farmer of the Year.
Zaunbrecher is the 19 year-old son of John Lawrence and Leslie Soileau Zaunbrecher of Mowata.
He has three brothers, John, Douglas, and Phillip and one sister, Adrienne Z. Fontenot. Michael is the grandson of Robert “Bobby” Soileau and Clara Soileau of Eunice and Frank and Hilda Frey Zaunbrecher of the Mowata community.
Zaunbrecher and his family live on the family farm in Mowata. The farm consists of 1,600 acres of rice, soybeans and crawfish.
Zaunbrecher is a first year agricultural sciences student at McNeese State University. He is a 2017 honor graduate from St. Edmund Catholic School in Eunice, graduating with a 3.8571 G.P.A. Michael was a member of the National Honor Society and Senior Hall of Fame. He was invited to attend McNeese University Academic Signing Day in the Spring of 2017.
Zaunbrecher was a four-year member of the St. Ed’s football team, four-year member of the St. Ed’s baseball team, and Campus Ministry team.
He has been a life member of St. Lawrence Catholic Church.
Zaunbrecher was a 4-H market lamb exhibitor for 11 years and won the 2016 Southwest District Livestock Show with the Grand Champion Market Lamb.
During the summer of 2017, he was employed by USDA NRCS and the Acadia Soil and Water Conservation District as a district technician.
Growing up on the family farm has helped Zaunbrecher to learn the duties and responsibilities of a farmer from an early age operating the tractors and plowing the fields.
Some of Zaunbrecher’s many responsibilities include operating machinery during planting, harvesting, and pre-planting seasons, checking water in rice and crawfish fields to include opening and closing pipes, spraying levees, plowing, laser leveling, mowing driveways and field roads, and assisting with equipment maintenance, grain storage and transport.
His hobbies include spending time with his family and friends, hunting, fishing, riding 4-wheelers, and dog training.
Zaunbrecher’s agricultural roots and dedication to farming are evident in his passion for the industry. Zaunbrecher is a fifth-generation rice farmer on their family farm.
Zaunbrecher was chosen by the USDA Farm Service Agency from a group of young deserving men nominated by FFA/Ag Teachers from area schools.
This year’s festival is slated for Oct. 19 to 22 in downtown Crowley.
