For the second time in its 68 year history, the Grey County Federation of Agriculture has a woman as its president.
Ann Marie Watson was acclaimed to the position at the Federations Annual General Meeting Friday evening in Meaford.
Watson says it should come as no surprise to people that a woman has taken over the top job at the Federation because in farming there is no gender barrier and both man and women share equally the tasks of operating the family farm.
She also has no concerns about dealing with an all male executive and says in fact they have been very supportive of her in the 9 years she has been involved in the Federation.
Watson says one of the challenges she immediately must face as Federation President is to get farmers involved once again in the Federation and dealing with agricultural issues.
She says there are many vacancies at the township level for Federation directors that need to be filled.
She says the challenges of operating the farm and often holding an off farm job has left many farmers physically and emotional drained and they have little time for other outside activities.
Watson says its her job to try and renew farmers interests in the Federation and get them involved once again so she is going to make lots of phone calls, knock on doors and visit the Keady market to encourage people to get involved once again.
Joining Watson on the Federations executive is Paul De Jong as 1st Vice President and Wayne Cahill as 2nd Vice President.
