Henry County native has spent her life on the farm.

Kristan Wright has made the family farm a part of her entire life, having grown up only a few miles from where she and her husband, Daniel, now own and operate Wright Farms.

Her background growing up on a diversified livestock and crop operation has been a significant advantage to their diverse farming operation.

“I grew up about three miles away, on a very diversified farm, where we had around 800 head farrow-to finish operation. We also grew tobacco, a little bit of corn, soybeans, a lot of alfalfa, and wheat straw as well, and we had cattle,” Kristan said.

Having been named the 2025 Kentucky Farm Bureau Farm Woman of the Year, she said her grandmother had a big influence on her as far as a woman’s role on the farm.

“My grandparents had a farm, and when my grandfather became ill and unable to do the work around the farm, my grandmother had to do it all,” Kristan said. “Growing up, I heard stories about her working like a man on the farm, and what made it even more special, she was a very petite woman, but she took over the whole operation.”

Kristan also credits her father with teaching her all about their family farm.

“My dad wanted me to do everything on the farm, anything and everything he taught me,” she said. “The only thing he would never allow me to do was cut tobacco, and I really didn't complain about that!”

While the seeds of farming were planted in her mind from the beginning, Kristan also developed a desire to teach others about agriculture, something that is still with her in another role, working for the Kentucky Department of Education, as an agriculture education consultant and state FFA advisor.

“I always knew I wanted to do something in agriculture and figured out in high school, I wanted to be an agriculture teacher, just like my ag teacher, Mr. Stahl,” she said. “I saw the influence and the impact that he had on me as well as other students. I wanted to do the same.”

After graduating from the University of Kentucky with a degree in agricultural education, she had to wait for an opening to come up, but when it did, it was in Louisville at Seneca High School.

“I taught agriculture education at Seneca for 13 years, and it was really different having grown up in a small rural area, thinking the only students in ag class were those coming from a farming background, but this was Louisville,” she said. “But it exposed me to the fact that everyone needed to know about agriculture because so many are far removed from the farm and do not understand a lot of the practices that we do on the farm and why we do what we do in agriculture.”

Kristan said having the same influence on her students as she once had was very rewarding, seeing them learn real facts about agriculture and become involved in leadership activities.

Today, as the state FFA advisor, she now has the ability to influence many more students, but coming to the farm after a day of work is relaxing to her, despite all the work that goes into it.

The Wright Farm consists of a farrow-to-finish hog operation, a commercial finishing hog operation, tobacco, corn, soybeans, wheat, straw, a KFB Certified Roadside Market that features pumpkins, fresh produce in the summer (tomatoes, corn, watermelons), sheep, cattle, alpacas, and, believe it or not, one zebra bought at an exotic animal auction.

“We feature Southdown Babydoll sheep and sell them mainly for people who want to use them for breeding or showing,” Kristan said. “We also have bees to produce our own honey, and miniature donkeys.”

They have 200 acres of corn, 150 acres of which are all used to grind into feed for their hog operation, something they do twice a week. And if all that wasn’t enough, the Wrights make Christmas arrangements and purchase wreaths from a FFA member SAE’s project to sell during the holiday season.

Kristan said it was a great honor to be named as the current KFB Farm Woman of the Year, an award that so many Kentucky women farmers would be deserving of.

“I get to work with women in agriculture every day who are doing the same work I am, and in this role, I have the opportunity to interact with many of them on a daily basis” she said. “It has been an honor to be recognized in this way, but there are so many other women out there, too, who would have also been well deserving of the honor.”

Kristan said coming home every day to a farm that she and Daniel started from scratch is something she looks forward to, even though there is always a lot of work to do. But as a family, their two children, and of course, her many animals, seem to be the perfect combination for Kristan Wright, KFB Farm Woman of the Year.