Wheat Scoop: Kansas Wheat Celebrates National FFA Week

With more than 500,000 members in 7,000 chapters throughout the nation and in U.S. territories, FFA is the nation’s largest youth organization. During National FFA Week, FFA members celebrate their participation in the organization by taking part in community activities to raise awareness of FFA and the opportunities in agriculture.

Kansas Wheat, the cooperative agreement between the Kansas Wheat Commission and the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, is a proud sponsor of the Kansas FFA Foundation. Kansas FFA Reporter Alyson McCall visited the Kansas Wheat office on Feb. 24 to share more about how FFA makes a positive impact on the lives of young people in Kansas. A sophomore at Kansas State University, McCall became active in FFA as a freshman at Minneapolis High School.

“When I sat in my first ag class in high school I was immediately hooked. I got involved in every competition possible, did all the leadership opportunities I could, fell in love with the organization and just wanted to keep being involved in it,” she says.

McCall grew up on a farm. She had horses as a youth, and her family raised cattle and wheat.

“We grew wheat when I was little, so I rode in the combine and rode in the truck into the elevator. That was the highlight of my summer. When I got into high school, I worked two summers at the elevator during harvest. I weighed the trucks, filled out tickets and figured moisture and dock. It was cool to be on kind of both ends of the spectrum and see how it works on both sides,” she recalls.

Each Kansas FFA officer spends a year traveling the state, talking to FFA members, visiting with agricultural businesses and industries and talking to supporters. Championing the ever-evolving industry of agriculture is a task she takes seriously as a state FFA officer.

“I’ve realized there are a lot of people who don’t understand agriculture. I see the future of agriculture. It is changing. We need to make sure we’re keeping with the current times and that we are presenting ourselves as being a current in an ever-changing industry. I see agriculture needing to step up and share with the world what we’re all about; taking that Minneapolis farming community I grew up in and sharing that across the state and across the country so that people have an understanding about where our food comes from and the people who produce it,” she says.

An animal science major with a pre-vet option, McCall eventually hopes to help the agriculture industry by becoming a large animal veterinarian in rural Kansas.

“I want to go back into a small rural Kansas community and serve a purpose for farmers and ranchers. I know there are not a lot of large animal veterinarians in rural Kansas and so if that’s a need I can meet, that’s what I want to do,” she says.