OFI 877: Farm Responsibilities Lead To Success | FFA SAE Edition | Taylor Whitehead | Laclede County High School FFA

SHOW NOTES

INTRODUCING TAYLOR WHITEHEAD!

The amount of responsibilities that farm kids have heaped upon them always amazes me.  What amazes me more is how they step up to the challenge so well.  We all know that the legal age you become an adult is 18.  But for farm kids I’m sure the average age of actually being capable of being an adult is much younger than that.

In today’s interview I am going to be speaking with one of these “farm kids”.  Taylor Whitehead is only sixteen years old and just beginning her junior year of high school.  However, the responsibilities that she has been given throughout her life really make it seem like she is a completely independent adult already.

For the bulk of Taylor’s life she has been milking cattle before and after school.  Her family just sold their milking string, so now they are raising dairy heifers and she works on the farm in that capacity.  All of those years of working with the dairy cattle and having that responsibility helped her develop the ability to take care of dairy cattle in a way that caused other people to trust her.

It has been this experience that has led Taylor to her own business watching over other people’s strings of dairy, show cattle.  As an incoming junior in high school Taylor travels all over the United States, sometimes by plane, to care for people’s dairy strings at shows.  Taylor makes sure the cattle are cared for, fed and ready to be shown while their owners are otherwise indisposed at the shows.  Taylor will even stay with the cattle overnight to make sure all is well the next day when it comes time for them to be shown.

This is not a job that the owners of these high dollar cattle take lightly.  For them to put their trust in Taylor while she is still in high school speaks volume about Taylor’s maturity and sense of duty.

SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Dairy Production

HIGH SCHOOL: Laclede County High School; Conway, Missouri

MASCOT: Bears

FFA ADVISOR: Mary Ann Keck

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR TAYLOR WHITEHEAD:

Click on the picture below to be taken to the Laclede County High School Ag. Department’s website:

Taylor’s FFA Advisor’s Email Address: mkeck@lcr1.org 

Laclede High School’s Telephone Number: (417) 589-2171

FFA LINKS:

National FFA Organization

Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE’s)

Support FFA 

Donate to FFA – One way that FFA students are able to start small businesses is through an FFA grant of $1,000.  In 2014, 141 FFA students received these grants.  With your donations, more students can get this head start – pay it forward.

REASONS TO DONATE TO FFA:

• Only 2% of Americans grow and raise most of the food and livestock consumed by the other 98% as well as the rest of the world.  FFA is providing the needed education, training and resources to Americans that will carry that torch forward and insure that America continues to have inexpensive, quality food.
• Rural Communities will rely on entrepreneurship in the future for population growth and job creation.  The FFA is a major catalyst to that entrepreneurial growth.
• Farmers, ranchers and those working in agriculture give the rest of America incredible amounts of freedom because the search for food is as simple as going to the grocery store:

“The future of American agriculture depends on the involvement and investment in America’s youth, In order to prepare for the population of tomorrow, we need to encourage America’s youth today, and show that careers in agriculture are profitable, rewarding, and vital.”.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue

Where Off-Farm Income And Matt Brechwald Can Be Heard:

Member Of The National Association Of Farm Broadcasters