September 16, 2026

2026 photo contest winners announced

Topic: Education

Bismarck, N.D. – NDFB's Promotion and Education Committee has announced the 2026 NDFB agriculture photo contest winners. The contest featured three categories: Landscape, Animals, and Lifestyle. Each winner will receive $300.

The winner of the landscape category is Genevieve Monsebroten from Grafton, N.D. Titled "A season unfolding beneath us," Monsebroten's drone image captures a sugar beet harvest underway. A beet harvester works its way through the field, carefully digging up sugar beets and separating them from the soil as harvest is underway.

Sara Wescott from Watford City, N.D., won the lifestyle category with "Rodeo horses going to work." The low, close shot captures a pair of horses mid-run in a steer-wrestling match, hooves kicking up a spray of dirt as they dig in and drive forward. (header photo)

The winning animal photo is by Christopher Van Hoose from Dickinson, N.D. Titled "I see you," the close-up portrait puts a bison face-to-face with the camera, its shaggy coat and curved horns bathed in golden light as it peers through tall prairie grass.

Wescott's lifestyle photo was declared the overall champion among the three winners. NDFB will auction off her photo as a canvas print during the NDFB Annual Meeting in Bismarck. The scholarship live auction will take place on Friday, November 20 at 7:00 p.m. at the Bismarck Hotel and Conference Center in Bismarck, N.D. More information can be found at www.eventleaf.com/e/ndfb-annual-meeting.

"This year's photo contest blew us away, with more than 200 entries submitted," said Samantha Froelich, chair of NDFB's Promotion and Education Committee. "The growth we saw this year shows just how much passion our members have for capturing the story of agriculture in North Dakota."