The kick-off breakfast for the National Agricultural Aviation Association convention for the last several years has included the awarding of two scholarships, sponsored by BASF Ag Products, for young ag aviators.

This year’s winners were Jordan Loewen of Valley Sprayers in Park River, ND and Brad Taylor of Corinth, MS. They are pictured here in the center, Brad on the left and Jordan on the right, between Dr. Gary Fellows of BASF to the far left and NAAA Executive Director Andrew Moore on the far right.

Brad received a $2500 scholarship to help with his ag aviation training. “It means everything to me. You know a lot of people work hard getting into this business and any help we can really goes a long way,” he said. Brad is currently working in Arkansas and the main crop he deals with there is rice. Taylor was sponsored by Dennie Stokes of Stokes Flying Service, which is based in Parkin, Arkansas.

Listen to my interview with Brad here: NAAA/BASF Scholarship winner Brad Taylor

Jordan was sponsored by Glen Wharam of Valley Sprayers, who hired him when he was still a senior in high school. “Now I’ve been working there for four years and got interested in the spraying part and now I’m spraying for that,” Jordan said. “Right out of my senior year I went to airplane mechanics school and Glen helped me out with that.”

We will hear more from Glen and the rest of the Wharam family – a great bunch of folks really dedicated to the work they do helping North Dakota farmers. The diversity of crops they work with in that area include sugar beets, potatoes, wheat, sunflowers, corn and soybeans.

Listen to my interview with Jordan here: NAAA/BASF Scholarship winner Jordan Loewen

2011 NAAA Convention Photo Album