SHOW NOTES

INTRODUCING SKYLER STORIE!

Interviewing FFA students on this show is always an inspirational experience.  The energy, optimism and enthusiasm that these students have is unmatchable.

In today’s episode I get to speak a truly amazing young man.  Skyler Storie has grown up on his families farm in Conway, Missouri.  He has not taken a minute of it for granted.  Rather than wishing he lived in town, closer to friends or with more amenities nearby, he has embraced what he can do on his farm.

Since Skyler was ten years old he has been doing “ride-a-longs” with a large animal veterinarian a couple of days of the week, every summer.  He has also been raising his own cattle and working the ranch for his father, while his father runs the families concrete business.

Skyler has an affinity for livestock with horns.  He started off in his own herd raising Longhorn cattle.  He has since moved onto the Horned Hereford breed, and he had to try hard to do this.  He could not find any horned Herefords in Missouri to purchase and ultimately found some in Kansas and bought them from there, sight unseen.

The next horned animal that Skyler is expecting is a pair of buffalo that he is going to put out in their pasture.  I asked him what he was going to do with the buffalo, and he replied “I’m going to look at them”.  That won’t be a money maker, but I totally get it!

Skyler also raises a lot of birds.  Between turkeys, ducks, geese, chickens, guineas and peacocks he has over 300 birds running around the families farm.  In this episode he even has an entertaining story of how he once “accidentally” ate a peacock and where he ranks the taste of a peacock among the other birds that he raises.

SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Diversified Livestock

HIGH SCHOOL: Laclede County High School; Conway, Missouri

MASCOT: Bears

FFA ADVISOR: Mary Ann Keck

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR SKYLER STORIE:

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

Skyler’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