You can't get much cuter than this! Miller Cowan is the Grand Prize winner of the Co-op Future Farmers Contest with his adorable picture of being out in the pasture. Mom, Brooke, submitted the picture with hopes to win the $500 Co-op gift card.
The picture of her little cowboy stole the hearts of both the Co-op panel as they needed to bring the hundreds of submissions down to just 5 photos finalists. The community vote took place online as well as at the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair a few weeks ago with literally thousands casting their votes.
"We had so much fun with this contest," says Valleyview Co-op Marketing Manager and spokesperson for the Co-ops of Westman contest, Amber Vandale-Torrance.
"I believe we had hundreds of entries, kids between the ages of newborn right up to 17, all letting us know why they wanted to be a farmer in the future, how they wanted to be connected to agriculture later on in their life," she explains.
"The pictures are just absolutely fantastic! It was really one of our toughest contests to have to judge because all of the entries were just absolutely amazing. We did whittle it down to five finalists and then opened it up to the public to let our neighbors and our friends help us choose who was going to be the winner for 2025, the Co-op's Future Farmer contest and our winner was Miller Cowan. Miller was in our zero to six age group category and said he wanted to be a farmer because farming is fun."
Vandale-Torrance says it was a tall order for the Co-ops of Westman to ask the community to judge between these five photos.
"It was not an easy choice for anyone, I'm sure, but you know, we were so pleased we got in thousands of votes and there was only one vote per household," she adds, "so a lot of people came out to support these five young future farmers. And I think that it really speaks to particularly in our trading area, the importance of agriculture, the importance of really nurturing young people who have passion to continue with agriculture, because if we're not nurturing these kids who really see themselves building a life on a farm, there won't be a farm in the future."
All five finalists received a Co-op gift prize pack.
"Based on the incredible success of our first Future Farmers Contest it's safe to say we'll be doing this again next year!" adds Vandale-Torrance.
"I'm sure there's no shortage of photos parents and grandparents' phones as the crops start to green up again but keep it in mind when you're planting and in harvest, at any time you see your kids doing something just amazing on the farm it's a great opportunity to snap a great photo and maybe next year we'll be celebrating someone in your family!"