Ag Educators

In the far reaches of northwest Missouri, there’s an FFA program where students operate two full greenhouses, an 8-acre row crop farm raising corn and soybeans, and a 3-acre livestock farm. This organization has two, 300-gallon tanks to raise catfish and tilapia and an aquaponics system that uses water from […]

Osceola students win national BBQ championship. National champion. That’s something few Missouri FFA chapters achieve. National food champion. That’s something no Missouri FFA chapter has ever achieved until the Osceola High School FFA BBQ team, directed by Charles (“Chuck”) Simpson, did so at the World Food Championship in Dallas in […]

Becoming an agricultural education instructor and FFA advisor at Slater (Mo.) High School was a no-brainer for Zach Crews. His father, Paul Crews, was a Slater schools agricultural education instructor and FFA advisor for more than 20 years and a Slater high school principal for seven. His father even had […]

“There’s a little bit of everything for any type of personality or interest group,” ag teacher Sarah Ray said of the Elsberry (Mo.) FFA Chapter, which she leads with Jason Vandivort. That may be an understatement. Elsberry FFA students have one of the widest ranges of hands-on learning opportunities, which […]

Jason Dieckhoff and Marshall Streit teach ag at the Cass Career Center in Harrisonville, Mo. The center, which draws about 120 ag students from five area high schools, has had great success. Neither teacher likes to boast, though maybe they should. The two were named Harrisonville Community Teachers of the […]

The Paris (Mo.) FFA chapter won the National Model of Excellence, the award for the top chapter in the country, at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis in October 2021. How do you become No. 1 among nearly 9,000 chapters? By going beyond teaching basic ag and science, bake and […]

Brookfield wins! Brookfield FFA, that is. The prize: a cowbell. Not just any cowbell; the FFA version of the Bell Game prize. The annual Bell Game, between the high school football teams of Brookfield, Mo., and nearby Marceline, is one of the oldest sports rivalries in America. It is called […]

More than half the students at Ash Grove High School are food insecure. That’s a shocking figure for Lawrence County, Missouri’s top county for beef cattle. It’s especially astonishing considering southwest Missouri is among the leading cattle production areas in the country, and the Show-Me State is home to the […]

Chad Murphy is the ag education instructor for Versailles High School, Morgan County R-II, and sponsors the local FFA chapter, which he humbly characterizes as “a well-rounded program, a good average chapter.” He teaches Agriculture Science I for freshmen, Agriculture Science II for sophomores, Agriculture Construction (shop work, welding), a […]

Lesley Newsom, ag instructor and FFA advisor for Senath-Hornersville High School in Senath, Mo., keeps busy with lesson planning, teaching topics ranging from plant science to animal husbandry to biotechnology, and even welding and construction. And that’s not counting the fundraising, bus driving, early mornings, after-hours work and weekends she […]

Dean Reichel, ag teacher and FFA advisor at New Bloomfield R-III, goes above and beyond to make a difference. That’s a cliché in today’s cynical age, but it’s true in his case. He’s making lesson plans for eighth to 12th grade ag education classes that, thanks to COVID-19, he knows […]

Ag Educators Series Life changed in spring 2020. People stopped going to work, the movies and restaurants. They even stopped hanging out together. It was literally a matter of life and death. But ag workers kept working. You don’t get days off on a farm. That includes school farms, like […]