John Zaunbrecher named Abbeville Rotary’s Farmer of Year

Each year, the Abbeville Rotary Club recognizes the importance and impact agriculture has on Vermilion Parish by naming a Rotary Farmer of the Year.
This year’s honor goes to John Zaunbrecher of Gueydan. The Rotary Club presented him with the award Wednesday during its weekly lunch meeting. Rotarian Mark Shirley presented the award.
“Because of John’s 40 successful years in farming,” Shirley said, “his ability to change with the ever-changing conditions farmers face and his leadership and contributions to the industries he works in and community, it is without reservation that the Abbeville Rotary Club honors John Zaunbrecher as the 2015 Farmer of the Year.”
Zaunbrecher graciously accepted the award.
“It’s definitely an honor,” Zaunbrecher said.
And a surprise.
Knowing that Zaunbrecher would be reluctant to attend the Rotary meeting to accept the award, Rotarian Mark Shirley said the group, working with Zaunbrecher’s wife, Phyllis, told Zaunbrecher that he would be attending for another reason.
“We told him that we were honoring farm wives and that Phyllis would be receiving an award,” Shirley said.
The plan worked.
“Talk about I was surprised,” Zaunbrecher said.
The recognition is probably not a shock to anyone who knows Zaunbrecher. He grew up in a farming family with his father, brothers, grandfather and uncles. Zaunbrecher has farmed as much as 1,5000 acres of rice and 400 acres of soybeans. In recent years Zaunbrecher has turned his attention to cattle, of which he has nearly 200.
Zaunbrecher has served on the Vermilion Parish Rice Advisory Committee, is a member of the Rice Growers Association, Farm Bureau and the Cattleman’s Association.
When asked during the Rotary meeting what advice he would have for anyone wanting to get into farming, Zaunbrecher said the passion for the work has to be there before anything else.
“You have to have the desire for it,” Zaunbrecher said.