Teaching Life Skills
February 26, 2024
Written By Neal Fandek
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 the fish tanks to grow lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and marigolds. The organization can generate $8,000 each spring from plant sales alone.
This prodigious program is Tarkio FFA, helmed by Dustin Lambertsen, agriculture education instructor and FFA advisor at Tarkio R-I School District. With the help of his students, Lambertsen has secured funding to build a livestock learning lab, purchase a 30-foot livestock trailer and purchase an ultrasound machine.
“When I came here (in 2014), there were 10 students, only one of whom showed livestock,” Lambertsen reflected. “Now we have grown the program to 40 students, 14 of whom show their livestock, and we have gotten far more involved in the community.”
Lambertsen said he’s had up to 15 students try their hand at grant writing in a given year. One grant allowed a student to grow his Supervised Agricultural Experience lawn care business from a handful to 60 customers today and, soon, a full-time business. Lambertsen believes the often-laborious grant process instills students with the patience, discipline and literacy to secure external funding and generate support for their projects.
“If we can get money to help our program without the school paying for it, that’s big,” Lambertsen said, noting he’s applied for as many as 10 grants in a year.
For community involvement, Tarkio FFA participates in highway trash pick-ups, a downtown beautification project, a food drive, low-cost fish fries and fruit sales, and other projects. As a result, the community is now solidly in its corner. Seven of the 8 farm acres the chapter works with were donated, and local seed dealers, co-ops, nutrient firms and parents provide planting, fertilizer and harvesting for the farm.
Lambertsen, who hails from Shenandoah, Iowa, about half an hour north of Tarkio, teaches seven classes every day, from Exploring Agriculture and Animal Science (including reproduction and genetics) to the high school and college dual-credit Ag Mechanics (plumbing, electrical systems, concrete, small engines, structures, ag power, welding, soil surveying), Ag Business (record books, fixed and variable costs, return on investment, grants) and Greenhouse Management. He also leads bistate tours of custom bull collection facilities, equipment manufacturers, sawmills, apple orchards, honey farms and genetic firms.
That’s a lot of ag engagement for a small-town FFA. Tarkio’s population is less than 1,500. Lambertsen acknowledged that agriculture may not be a full-time career path for many of his students.
“It’s more like gaining essential ag, business and other skills and applying that learning, taking large-scale business concepts, simplifying them and learning life skills along the way,” he said. “If you are raising chickens, for instance, you have to get up and care for them daily. They depend on you. If one of your animals is sick, you need to know what to do to get them better.”
He says the end game isn’t just teaching these varied skills but creating well-rounded individuals.
“I want to challenge them, teach them life skills,” Lambertsen said. “For me, FFA is about forming a complete person.”