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Justin Hand was born and raised
in Tift
County and is an active member of FFA on the local, regional, and state levels. He has competed nationally
for the Diversified Livestock
Production Award and won Bronze
after winning first place on the
state level. Justin also is a
member of the 2006 State winning
4-H Livestock Judging Team,
scoring individually 5th
highest in the State. He
presently serves as State
FFA Vice President representing
the South Region. Over the
years, he has served in his
local FFA chapter as President, Treasurer, and Secretary. He has participated in
many Career Development Events
such as Livestock Judging, Land
Judging, and in the Career
Success and State
FFA Convention Leadership
Conferences.
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Farm
Credit's Randy Dill,
and Sarah Dorman pose
with Justin Hand as he
shows off his Star
Agribusiness sign to be
displayed at his family
farm.
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Justin is a third generation
cattleman and has worked cattle
all of his life. Having been
raised around cattle, he has
gained the experience and
knowledge to start his own
business. He started his own
herd soon after entering the
seventh grade, which is also
when his career began showing
cattle with the FFA. Justin is proud of his heritage and states, “Since 1949, my family has
been involved in the cattle
business. My grandfather was a
cattle auctioneer for over 50
years, and my father has worked
with a cattle broker buying
cattle for 35 years.” He
continues, “I spent the early
years of my life helping my
father buy, raise, ship, and
process cattle. Every Wednesday
night, semis would pick up
cattle at my house, and I would
ride in one of those semis to
the stockyard to purchase my own
brood cows.” While in the tenth
grade Justin decided, “I would
leave the nest that my father
had helped me build and sell
cattle on my own.”
His scholastic involvement has
been equally successful. He
applied for and was accepted to
be part of the Tift County
Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences (AES) Career
Academy. In the AES
Academy, students are allowed to experience a wide variety of agriculturally
related positions. Only 28
students each year are accepted
into the
AES
Academy. After being accepted into the
AES
Academy, he was motivated by his Ag Education teacher, Ms. Lynne Cook, to
further develop his Supervised
Agricultural Education Project (SAE). As a part of this development, he applied for and was accepted to the
Governors Honors Program (GHP)
in the field of Executive
Management. There, he learned
valuable information about
making budgets, understanding
insurance and managing taxes.
Justin is a 2006 Honor Graduate
of Tift County High School and
the Tift County Agricultural and
Environmental
Sciences Career
Academy. He graduated with a GPA of 3.6 and placed 55 out of 396 students in
his graduating class. He was
also the recipient of the South
Region
FFA Area V “Star Agribusiness”
for 2006-2006.
Justin currently attends
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural
College (ABAC) and plans to
attain his Associates Degree in
Animal Science. He plans to
participate on the collegiate
level in FFA, Block and Bridle Club, ABAC Cattleman’s Association and hopes to become
an ABAC Ambassador. After ABAC,
he plans to attend the
University of Georgia and
Oklahoma
State University to complete his
Doctorate in Agriculture
Business Management. His
ultimate goal is to open his own
Cattle Feed Yard and Cow/Calf
Operation.
Justin’s proud parents are
Nancy and Randy Hand of Tifton.
He has two brothers Chance and
Tyler. Justin is the 2006
recipient of the AgGeorgia Farm
Credit sponsored Tift County
Young Farmers Scholarship in the
amount of $1,000.
Congratulations to Justin and
his family! We look forward to
seeing you become Dr. Justin
Hand.
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