The next leaders in agriculture: Augusta County animal show highlights future of local farming

“Is this something you want to keep doing for the re-?”

“Yes, sir!”

Before The News Leader could even finish asking the question, twins Sadie and Tucker Talley made it abundantly obvious: they wanted to work with livestock for the rest of their lives.

It’s rare to find that kind of assurance out of any young person when asking about their future career, let alone a pair of 11-year-old twins. But at the Augusta County 4-H and FFA Market Animal Show and Sale, there’s plenty of belief in the future of agriculture. Both the FFA and 4-H are programs designed to help build leadership skills through agricultural work. The difference is that FFA, formerly known as Future Farmers of America, has affiliation with public schools in the area, while the 4-H program is open to any type of student.

For some kids in the programs, it’s a matter of family. It makes sense, considering Augusta County has the most land dedicated to agriculture of any county in the state. That goes for the Talley twins, who spend hours in the barn after school working with their animals. Homework waits until their mother is cooking dinner. That work in the barn showed on Friday at the animal show, as Sadie trotted out a 260-pound pig to show. According to her father, she was ready to show a steer on Saturday as well.

“When you’re growing up, it’ll get you a good job, teach you how to be nice to people, and how to appreciate agriculture,” Sadie said.

Like the Talley twins, Liam Morris and Jackson Michael are part of a family that is engrained in the agriculture industry in Augusta County. Morris and Michael are cousins, and in fact, the lamb that Michael showed at Thursday’s events was purchased from Morris’ father. Perhaps that experience lent itself to the success they both had in showing lambs on Thursday, but it will also lend to their futures. Again, like the Talleys, Michael and Morris want to continue the farming ways of their family.

“I like being outside and working with my hands, working with animals,” said Michael. In a time of more specialized technological careers, Michael wants to keep working in the family business. But there’s a recognition that pursuing those studies are an important part of the modern agricultural landscape.

“Technology helps a lot, and I guess it would be a good thing to learn. So, I’m thinking about it,” Michael said, but he’s far from certain about what the future may hold. “For now, I’m going to keep working.”

Morris recognizes that the environment he grew up in is atypical for most kids across America, but he has found love and passion in the family business. He wants to keep it running, even if it takes getting through a college education to help improve his odds of keeping the farm going.

“It’s definitely something I would consider doing, just to bring [the technology] back. The reality of it is that nowadays, you do have to have that technology side of farming to make it, to really grow your business,” Morris said.

Both the Talley twins, despite still being 11-years-old, said that they wanted to go to college to study agriculture and bring it back to Augusta County. They hope to be around events like the Market Animal Show and be a part of their own community of farmers in the future.

Not every kid going through the program comes from a farm family, and not everyone looks to make livestock and farming a living. The programs at local schools help with that as well, Fort Defiance High School principal Alan Shull said. Events like the animal show give kids opportunities to figure out their futures in the workforce, which is of utmost priority to the schools.

“We would rue the day it would ever go away,” Shull said, calling the opportunity it gives students who didn’t grow up around farms “paramount.”

Shirley Kaufman is the agriculture teacher at Buffalo Gap High School, and is a member of the animal show board. She runs the FFA program at Buffalo Gap, where she says maybe three of her 150-200 students actually come from full-time farming families. That means that she has to spend time not only educating the student, but the entire family on how to properly care for animals. But none of that ever diminishes the enthusiasm from her students, whether they have a farming background or not.

“Motivation-wise, they need to come here one year, and it takes them for the whole entire next year,” Kaufman said with a big smile, referencing the Market Animal Show.

Along with the education on farming, livestock, and how food makes it way to dining tables, the programs also emphasize soft skills like leadership, parliamentary procedure, and public speaking. Whether a student plans to work in the farming industry in the future or not, the lessons they learn can help shape their futures. The lessons are trickling to the cities too, as Waynesboro High School recently launched their own FFA program.

“It’s real nice seeing kids that don’t necessarily come from agriculture still find a place and learn things from their peers and their teachers, whatever that looks like,” said Jacob Lewis, agriculture teacher at Fort Defiance High School. Lewis came from a non-farming household, and fell in love with livestock when he was in high school.

For some kids, the market animal show is as far as they’ll get in the production side of agriculture. Lori Teter is a senior at Buffalo Gap High School, and she showed a steer for the final time.

That doesn’t mean she’s leaving animals. She is currently studying veterinary science and plans to enroll at Blue Ridge Community College’s veterinary technology program. Events like the Market Animal Show helped her figure out what she wanted to do with her future, which was still working with animals. She especially wants to stay in the Augusta County community and work with livestock.

“I have kind of a bond with everyone in the surrounding area. I would love to stay in the area,” Teter said.

Teter’s story is not a new one. Whether they stay in the production side of agriculture, there’s plenty of students who have been in the Market Animal Show that come back to Augusta County in some way attached. One former student, who minded Kaufman’s pigs while she was interviewed, is a meat inspector in the county. Another former student will soon be returning to be an agriculture teacher. Other students, Kaufman said, go get four-year degrees at college and come back to work on the financial side of the industry.

It’s not hard to see the impact of the Market Animal Show on the futures of young people, but there’s one other effect from the weekend. The sales from the animals are expected to come in at around half a million dollars, according to North River district Supervisor Jeff Slaven. That is entirely earned by the students, who have to track their expenses on what they spent on each animal. Each student owns their own animal, and the school FFA programs will help students without farming backgrounds acquire their animals. Students then keep track on prices for feed and other equipment that are required for the animals, which are then a part of their overall paperwork to show their animal. The financial goal, according to Kaufman, is to break even.

The animal sales are helped by companies like Rockingham Co-Op, which also operates some stores in Augusta County. Sam Liggett represented the company at the show on Friday, and recognizes the importance of events like this for every part of the agriculture industry, whether on the production side or not.

“It’s the opportunity for us to develop future agriculture and agro-business leaders," Liggett said, adding, "It’s really important to show all of our youth, whether they’re in the city or in the county, to connect them to actual production agriculture so they have an understanding of what it takes to get food to the table."

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—Akhil Ganesh is the Government Reporter at The News Leader. You can contact him at aganesh@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @akhildoesthings.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Augusta County animal show highlights future of local farming