Guebert receives Service to Agriculture Award

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois Farm Bureau President Richard Guebert Jr. was presented with the Service to Agriculture Award during the annual meeting of the Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers.

In honoring Guebert, Seth Baker, ISPFMRA immediate past president, noted his lifelong commitment to public service in Illinois agriculture including appointments by Illinois governors to various boards, missions and task forces.

“The award is the highest citation given to a non-member by the society. This is an award to someone outside of our membership that we feel has provided great leadership and represented agriculture in the state of Illinois well through the years,” Baker said.

“Thank you very much. This is quite an honor. It has always been my honor to represent Illinois agriculture wherever I’m needed to be, whether it was here in Illinois, Randolph County in southwestern Illinois, on the American Farm Bureau level or in Washington, D.C., or across the ‘pond’ in China, Poland, you name it. It was always my pleasure. I learned a lot and I was able to tell agriculture’s story,” said Guebert of Ellis Grove.

“I’ve always enjoyed farming all of these years and I really enjoy and I am honored to serve Illinois agriculture as president of the Illinois Farm Bureau.”

Guebert, his wife, Nancy, and their son, Kyle, grow corn, soybean and wheat and raise a small herd of cattle on their southern Illinois farm.

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Guebert is the 15th president of IFB and serves as a full-time executive officer. He also is president of County Financial, Illinois Agricultural Service Company and the IAA Foundation.

He represents IFB on the Coordinating Committee for Growmark Inc. He serves on the Illinois Agri-Food Alliance Executive Committee and board.

Prior to his election as IFB president, Guebert was vice president from 2003 to 2013. As vice president, he chaired the Resolutions Committee and the Country/IFB Governance Committee.

He was director of the Lower Kaskaskia Stakeholders, 1999 to 2004; director of the Kaskaskia Watershed Association, 2000 to 2004; and director of Gateway FS, 1990 to 2008.

Guebert was on the Randolph County Farm Bureau board of directors, 1993-2003; serving as vice president, 1994 to 1996; and then president, 1994 to 2003.

In 2001, he served on the IFB Co-op Task Force and completed the Agricultural Leaders of Tomorrow leadership training. He was named a Master Farmer in 2006 by Prairie Farmer.

In March 2007, he accompanied Jack Lavin, then-Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity director, and other delegates on a trade mission to India and to open a trade office in New Delhi.

Guebert traveled to Poland with then-Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn in June 2007 on a four-city cultural exchange and trade mission that developed and enhanced the relationship between Illinois and Poland.

In March 2009, Guebert was part of the farm business delegation to Cuba under the direction of John Block, former U.S. secretary of agriculture.

Then-Gov. Quinn appointed Guebert to the Taxpayer Action Board in April 2009 and in 2012 he was appointed to the Governor’s Export Advisory Council.

Guebert participated in a trade mission to China with Quinn and several business leaders from across the state in 2011.

He has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education with a minor in animal science from Southern Illinois University.

The Gueberts are members of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Chester, where Richard has served in many capacities.