Agro Perspectiva

A Future in Agriculture

20.05.2010 10:53 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) — In Muscatine, Iowa the local high school has a unique agriculture program. The backbone of this program features a brand new Agriculture Learning Center that gives students a hands-on experience with all aspects of modern farming — doing everything from planting the fields to caring for the livestock. At the heart of the program are teachers Dave Fowler and Dave Tometich. Both share a passion and enthusiasm for agriculture. The Agriculture Learning Center came to fruition when Dave Fowler, agriculture instructor at Muscatine high school, saw the need to give students the confidence to pursue agriculture at the college level. To give them that confidence, Fowler felt they needed practical on-the-farm experience. «When I got here we had 38 kids in the program, and when I looked around, I saw that there were no farm kids here.» Fowler said. «If we were going to increase the numbers, we’d have to do it with a urban population,» explained Fowler. "We actively changed the curriculum at that time. Over the years our numbers grew and grew. We were two teachers running a couple hundred kids, but the students were hesitant to get involved in agriculture at the university level. «To me it came down to the fact that they had no actual background experience,» he continued. «The idea came up a few years ago — ‘let’s try to put something together for them’ — we’re almost to the end of the road on that. We’ve got the building built, the classrooms, and the kids come and meet here part of the day. We have a soybean plot and a corn plot, and we work with Monsanto technicians to put those plots together.» While the agriculture center is relatively new — just a year old — Monsanto’s involvement with the Muscatine FFA and agriculture program spans back several years. «With Monsanto, we got involved with the ag learning center because we’ve always been actively participating with the FFA and the ag program,» Brian McKillip, Monsanto IT administrator and biotech ambassador, said. «We’ve had the kids down at the plant. When we do the demonstration plots, we bring the kids down. We show them how to put your seed in the planter and line out your rows. So the agriculture center was another opportunity to Monsanto to help out in the community.» The goal of the Agriculture Learning Center was to give kids that practical experience of running a farm so they would be confident enough to pursue agriculture at the college level — and eventually at a career level. «The biggest thing to help get young people involved in agriculture is if they feel they can be successful at it, they will be drawn to it,» Dave Tometich, agriculture teacher, explained. «Whether it’s growing a tomato, mucking some stalls at the ag center, or planting and harvesting sweet corn.» Muscatine High School junior, Michael Jenkins, didn’t know much about farming when he entered the ag program as a freshmen, but since then he’s learned a great deal and has taken on the responsibility of managing farm operations. He now sees a lot of opportunity for himself in the industry. «I didn’t grow up on a farm, so I didn’t really have any idea,» said Jenkins. «Since then, I’ve learned a lot about seed populations, how to plant correctly and make sure my rows are straight. It’s been a great opportunity.» While the Agriculture Learning Center primarily functions as an educational center, it still operates like any other farm. «The crop season this year has been off to a great start,» said Tometich. «In the first part of April we got some oats and some clover planted, and we’ll do some baling for the livestock at the ag center. From there we’ll go ahead and plant the corn and beans. We’ll use no-till and as many conservation practices as possible. We’ll start putting our garden plot in here shortly.»