Welch got an early start.
"Since he could stand up . . . he would go with me and check cows and feed cows, standing up on the seat with his arm setting up on my shoulder," said Welch's father, Otis. "He always wanted to drive the tractors with me and started driving the tractors when he was really young. It was obvious to me that's what he wanted to do."
At age 29, Welch has grown a farming and ranching operation up from several heifers he kept from his FFA days at Troy High School to a herd of 150. And beginning with no farm equipment or land, he annually turns over ground on a few thousand acres, harvesting corn, cotton and wheat.
The Outstanding Young Farmer & Rancher will be announced this weekend at the Texas Farm Bureau's 76th annual convention in Fort Worth. The winner will drive away in a new, mega-cab Dodge pickup and gain the use of an International Harvester tractor.
Coleburn Davis, Farm Bureau's associate director of organization programs, said competition for the award is stiff, with about 40 entries statewide, and ranges from small to large operators.
