2025 Board of Directors Elections

Age: 59

Farming Operation

Brenda is co-owner and manager of Timberlawn Farm, a commercial beef cow/calf and stocker operation in Paris, KY, which also raises row crops, forage crops and Thoroughbred horses. She is co-owner of Cattle Marketing Group, Lexington, KY, a livestock dealer which markets cattle throughout North America. She is also Manager and Trustee of Fish Family Trust, her family’s original farm in Anderson, Indiana, which raises corn and soybeans.

Education

Purdue University, B.S. Agricultural Economics

Board Experience

• Bourbon County Conservation District Board, past Chair
• Bourbon County Farm Bureau, past Director and Secretary
• Bourbon County FFA Alumni Association, Treasurer, 2017-2020
• Kentucky Agriculture Development Board, member, 2021-2024
• Southern States, Lexington Cooperative Board, Director, 2023 to present
• University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Advisory Committee, member
• USDA Farm Service Agency, Kentucky State Committee, Chair, 2018-2021

Community and Industry Involvement

• Bourbon County Shooting Sports 4-H Club, Co-Coordinator
• Boy Scouts Troop 67, Troop Committee Member
• Church of the Annunciation parish member & St. Mary School past Council Member
• Kentucky Agriculture Leadership Program (KALP) Class IX
• International Grasslands Congress Tour, Farm Host, 2023
• Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association member
• Kentucky Soybean Association member
• Livestock Marketing Association member
• The Executive Program for Agriculture Producers (TEPAP) Units I and II, 2023 and 2024

Biographical Information

Having grown up on a family farm, I knew from an early age that my career would be in agriculture. I was an active 10-year 4-H member, majored in Agricultural Economics at Purdue University, and worked in the animal health industry before becoming a farmer.

Timberlawn Farm is a first-generation farming operation founded along with my husband, Austin Paul, nearly 33 years ago. What began as a beef stocker cattle grazing operation has steadily expanded with the addition of commercial fall and spring calving cow herds, row crops and Thoroughbred horses. While Austin primarily focused on the livestock dealer business now known as Cattle Marketing Group, I focused my work at the farm. We raised our two sons, Spencer Paul and Nelson Paul, at this farm instilling in them a deep appreciation for agriculture. Following college, both have returned to Kentucky and joined the family businesses. I’m also very proud to honor my parents’ farming legacy as the farm manager of the Fish Family Trust farm, a corn and soybean farming operation in Central Indiana.

Over the years, I’ve worked hard to improve and promote agriculture through my service on many agricultural boards at local, state and federal levels, and I feel the collective knowledge I’ve gained from those experiences will enable me to be an effective Farm Credit Mid-America director should I be chosen to serve. I was deeply honored to be named the Farmer of the Year award winner by Kentucky Farm Bureau in 2024.

Why do you want to serve on the Farm Credit Mid-America Board?

It would be an honor to serve on Farm Credit Mid-America’s Board of Directors. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate Farm Credit Mid-America as being more than just a lender. Farm Credit Mid-America offers a variety of resources and services that provide direct benefit to agriculture businesses. Farm Credit Mid-America is a true partner in both of our operations’ successes. My diverse farming and business experiences would enable me to contribute as a director and represent crop and livestock farmers seeking affordable working capital, as well as agri-business customers striving to achieve their business goals.