OFI 1037: Shotguns + Curiosity = Agriscience Research | FFA SAE Edition | Matthew Grab | Freeburg Community High School FFA

You may wonder how we can produce so much food in the United States on an ever-shrinking footprint of ground with fewer and fewer people being involved in production agriculture. The answer is the natural curiosity of the American Farmer coupled with a passion for agriculture and an innovative mind.

These characteristics that have made the American Farmer great are evident throughout the spectrum, from the 80-year-old farmer who is trying hard not to retire to the 16-year-old who is dreaming of how they can become a farmer.

In today’s interview, I am lucky enough to interview one of these farmers. At age 18, Matthew Grab is already accomplishing amazing things in the FFA and in agriculture. He lives on his family’s grain farm in Freeburg, Illinois and one of the crops they grow is soybeans. As part of Matthew’s supervised agricultural experience, he and a friend decided to see how hail damage would impact the yield on soybeans.

The two of them set up a test plot of soybeans to experiment on, but the question was, how were they going to replicate hail? A very fun and innovative solution was thought up. They would shoot the soybean plants with a shotgun from a distance to simulate hail stones comes down and ripping the soybean leaves.

Their initial hypothesis was that hail damage would decrease yield. This is a very natural hypothesis. However, they ended up demonstrating that at the stage of development that they simulated the damage the yield wound up increasing. This was very interesting, so the next year they replicated the experiment on a larger scale using a herbicide at a very low rate. This also increased the yield. They entered this experiment into the FFA’s National Agriscience Fair, and they won!

It is this type of natural curiosity and love for what they do that has always led the American Farmer to produce more with less. And it is this type of innovation and spirit in Matthew’s generation that gives me the confidence to know that we will find a way to continue to feed the world as our world’s population continues to grow.

SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Agriscience Research, Ag Mechanics & Repair

HIGH SCHOOL: Freeburg Community High School, Freeburg, IL

MASCOT: Midgets

FFA ADVISOR: Dusti Ingles

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR MATTHEW GRAB:

Click on the picture below to be taken to the Freeburg Community High School website:

Missy’s FFA Advisors’ Email Address: inglesd@fchs77.org

Freeburg Community School’s Telephone Number: 618-539-5533

FFA LINKS:

National FFA Organization

Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE’s)

Support FFA

Donate to FFA – FFA students can start small businesses 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% and the rest of the world. FFA provides the needed education, training, and resources to Americans that will carry that torch forward and ensure 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 food search 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