Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 02/25/18 > Livestock shows and FFA what you probably don’t know…

This is the time of year in Texas that is known as livestock show and rodeo season, and while you may not be from Texas or the United States, it still may be of interest to you because chances are there might be something similar where you are, and you may not realize the importance of these type events.

First let me give a brief over view of FFA, which is short for Future Farmers of America. The FFA originated back in 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri when a group of thirty three high school students got together to meet and discuss family farming issues and what life on their farms was like.

The idea came about in 1925 when the commissioner of Agricultural Education in Virginia came to the realization that young farm boys were growing up and leaving the family farm for other professions and livelihoods. He saw a need to create an organization that would help the young folks develop their skills in agriculture and help instill a sense of pride in being a family farmer.

In 1926 Virginia launched its own Future Farmers program and it was solidly embraced by the students and the community at large. The group immediately began plans to make this state idea into a national one and the plans for the first national meeting in Kansas City where laid out. The group of the thirty three elected their first president and a national FFA emblem that was similar to the Virginia Future Farmers group.

Segregation was big back then and since the FFA was a “white boys only” organization the blacks launched a similar group known as NFA, for New Farmers of America in 1935. In 1965 the groups merged and in 1969 females were allowed to join the national FFA, some states had already allowed females before that point, but they had been unable to participate on a national level. Women have always played an important role on the farm and it was way too long in my opinion in allowing them status, just my opinion though.

Currently there are over 7,500 local chapters of FFA and the membership is in excess of 600,000 members. At one point in time local chapters exceeded 8,500 chapters but family farms have also decreased along with small rural areas being converted into subdivisions and shopping centers near big cities. Here in my area we have grown from what was one single high school to five extremely large high schools, the farm land that was once everywhere has been replaced with the subdivisions and shopping as I have mentioned.

All of our high schools still have FFA programs, and the FFA has also changed in that they realized the family farm has been disappearing since the 1970’s so the focus has been on agricultural sciences and opportunities in the farming industry as the majority of farms in the USA are now corporate owned facilities. The small mom & pop farmer are a dying species so the FFA is taking “city slickers” and showing them the opportunities in farming from a business standpoint.

In our area these kids are living in subdivisions but are able to raise cows, sheep, pigs, chickens and turkeys on the school FFA grounds or the “ ag barn” as it is called. The culmination of these projects of raising live stock is the live stock shows and sales. The animals that are judged to be the best in confirmation and condition are sold at the end of the live stock show competition at an auction. Local chapter auctions can bring usually enough money to the student to have paid for the animal and the feed to raise it for the year long project. Major shows like Houston, San Antonio , Austin and Fort Worth can bring sale prices of over $1 million for the Grand Champion Steer and in the hundreds of thousands for a turkey or a pen of broilers, which is three chickens.

Years ago the student was able to keep all the money from the sale, but as the numbers started growing so did the squawking about “fairness” and spreading the money around, I’m not going to look it up but I think the Houston Grand Champion Steer student/owner is capped at $50,000 take home from the sale, the rest goes into a pool to be divided up among the non-winners whose animals don’t make the sale. I can’t really agree with that policy but it is where we have gone as a society, where every kid gets a participation trophy, like in little league baseball or any other youth sport. Here they get a participation check they can cash at the bank.

So, now you know a little background information about the Future Farmers of America Organization, that’s right, they did change their name back in 1988, that word “organization” is a key in getting donations from major corporations. Said corporations have been donating ever since and in 2006 Ford Motor Company made the first ever $1 million donation to the FFA in one lump sum. I might just need to look into where all that money goes when I get a chance. The FFA has kept the membership dues for students at $7.00 a year, which is really low compared to some other groups so hats off to them on that.

Tomorrow I will tell you about some of the events that FFA students can enter at these live stock shows, one of which might be very surprising since all the talk recently has been on guns and school shootings.

Until next time,
@sultnpapper

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