Abbeville Rotary Club names Ross Hebert as 2014 Farmer of the Year

Ross Hebert of Henry was excited, but at the same time, sad when he learned he was named the 2014 Rotary Club Farmer of the Year.
Hebert received the award Wednesday at the Rotary Club weekly meeting.
He thanked the Rotarians for the award, along with his family, and his co-workers who helped make him a successful farmer.
But the person he wanted to thank the most was the man who helped him fall in love with farming at a young age.
Kern Broussard, his grandfather, introduced him to farming when Hebert was a boy. The two would ride tractors together and Broussard taught him everything he knew about farming.
Unfortunately, Broussard could not make the Rotary meeting because he died a month ago. He was 82 years old. Broussard was a rice farmer, crawfish farmer and raised cattle.
“My grandfather made me what I am today,” Hebert told the Rotarians. “I looked up to him and always wanted to be a farmer because of him.”
When Hebert began farming in 1996, he started with 250 acre, farming rice and crawfish. He expanded his farm by purchasing and leasing more land.
Today, he farms 2,000 acres of rice, 1,500 acres of soybeans and 600 acres of crawfish.
Hebert just added soybean into his farming rotation with rice.
He is married to the former Tonya Strother and raising three children, William,
Sara Catherine and Holland.
Hebert spoke highly about his farm manager Josh Courville and Courville’s wife, Brandy, for letting Josh be his farm manager.
“You can’t count the man hours it takes to harvest,” Hebert said.
His father and mother, Joey and Connie Hebert who were there, were also thanked by their son.