Putnam County Farm Bureau (PCFB) Director J. Keith Fielder is serving as chairman of the Georgia Farm Bureau (GFB) Honeybee Committee.
Fielder leads the committee in shaping GFB’s policy relating to honeybees in Georgia. The 10-member committee, made up of beekeepers from each of GFB’s 10 districts, meets in the spring each year to consider updates to the organization’s stances on farm issues. The committee, one of GFB’s 20 commodity advisory committees, will meet again in August at the GFB Commodity Conference.
Fielder is the county Extension coordinator for Putnam and Hancock counties. He and his wife, Rose Anne, run a small honeybee operation, producing honey and beeswax products and providing pollination services.
Fielder has served on the PCFB Board of Directors since the early 2000s and has served as vice chairman of the GFB Honey Committee for the past three years. He has an associate degree from Middle Georgia College and dual bachelor’s degrees in animal science and agronomy from the University of Georgia.
In his duties with the UGA Cooperative Extension Service, Fielder works as a honeybee specialist and has given instruction as a part of the Young Harris Bee Institute for the past 23 years. He has given presentations around the United States, England and Ireland as a part of various bee programs, and judged honey at the Great Yorkshire Festival of Bees in England.
He is a past president of the Georgia Beekeepers Association. Both he and Rose Ann have been named the association’s Beekeeper of the Year, Keith in 2009 and Rose Anne in 2017. Keith has served as president of the Georgia Association of County Agricultural Agents and as chairman of the National Association of County Agricultural Agents. Previously, he worked 10 years in the Georgia Department of Agriculture Pesticide Division.
The Fielders live in Eatonton. They have one son, Chris, and one grandson, Elijah.
Founded in 1937, Georgia Farm Bureau is the state’s largest general farm organization and has 158 county offices.
– Contributed