OFI 1798: The Hard Work And Payoffs Of Farming | FFA SAE Edition – Featured Freshman | Lauren Comes | Atlantic High School FFA

Lauren Comes is a farmer and FFA student from Southwest Iowa. She has just completed her first, full year of FFA and is preparing to launch into even more FFA activities as sophomore. Lauren farms with her father and brothers on their multi-generational farm, primarily raising commercial cattle, but also growing some row crops.

In this interview Lauren and I spoke about the payoffs of farming. As she talked about in the show, not every aspect of farming is pleasant or enjoyable, but they are necessary to keep the farm going. And, eventually there is a payoff, and I don’t mean money. That payoff is different for all of us. For Lauren it takes place in March when she gets to spend time with newborn calf and its mother in the barn. For me, it is in mid-July at the end of a long day watching the sun go down and listening to the cattle graze. Either way, there are those moments on the farm that make those unpleasant moments worth it.

Lauren is pouring all of her energy in the FFA and farming. She doesn’t know what she wants to study after high school yet, but she knows it will be in agriculture. And certainly there is wisdom built into her father’s choice to have the kids hand stack, heavy bails of hay in the hot, Iowa sun. There will be a day in Lauren’s future that test her, possibly even makes her wonder if pursuing her career goals are worth it, and then she will remember stacking those bales and her motivation will return. It works the same for all of us who have ever done an unpleasant, physically taxing job. It pushes us forward and helps us get to where we are supposed to end up.

SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Beef Production

HIGH SCHOOL: Atlantic High School; Atlantic, Iowa

MASCOT: Trojans

FFA ADVISOR: Eric Miller

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR LAUREN COMES:

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

Lauren’s FFA Advisor’s Email Address: emiller@atlanticiaschools.org

Atlantic High School’s Telephone Number: (712) 243-5358

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:

“Because American farmers are able to provide for so many of us, they give more and more of us the freedom to pursue goals and livelihoods beyond growing the food we need to survive.”

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack