The 82nd International Rice Festival will recognize Benjamin Joseph Faulk as the 2018 Junior Farmer of the Year. He is the 19-year-old son of Thomas and Gretchen Leonards Faulk.
Faulk has four sisters, Jennifer Kidder (Shiloh), Andrea Guidry (Chris), Hannah Katira (Kris) and Anne Catherine. His brothers are Luke and Jack. His nephews and niece are Matthew, Joseph, Raj and Olive. Benjamin is the grandson of Leonard L. “Buck” Leonards and the late Bobbie Link Leonards and the late Chester Faulk and Dolores Walton Faulk McKellar, all of Crowley.
Faulk lives on the family farm south of Crowley. The farm consists of 6,800 acres of rice, soybeans and crawfish. His family has deep roots in the farming community and he receives guidance from his papa and uncles Jeff, Mike and Bill who make up Faulk Farms.
Faulk is attending LSUE this fall and will study agribusiness while continuing to work on the farm. He is a former student of St. Michael’s Elementary School and Notre Dame High School where he graduated in May with a 3.6 G.P.A. He participated in campus ministry and Beta while attending Notre Dame High School.
Faulk has been a life member of St. Michael’s Catholic Church and served his parish as altar server for 10 years from third grade through graduation.
Faulk was home-schooled until fourth grade, which allowed he and his younger brother and best bud, Jack, to experience farming at early ages. His first responsibilities as a young boy were operating grain carts at harvest, bush hogging grass and plowing fields. His responsibilities grew as he aged and during his high school years
During his junior and senior years at Notre Dame, he began overseeing and was solely responsible for water management of 300 acres of crawfish and 280 acres of rice. He worked hauling, sorting and distributing crawfish.
Some of his responsibilities include operating machinery during planting, harvesting, and pre-planting seasons, checking water on 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.
Faulk is a sixth generation rice farmer on their family farm.
Past generations of his family recognized by the International Rice Festival as Farmer of the Year. include: Great Grandfather Louis Leonards, 1957; Great Grandfather William W. “Bill” Walton, 1962; Grandfather Chester Faulk, 1970; Great Uncle Edwin Leonards, 1979; and Grandfather Leonard “Buck” Leonards, 1985.
Faulk was chosen by the USDA Farm Service Agency from a group of young men nominated by FFA/Ag teachers from area schools.
