Monday, March 31, 2014

FFA Invasion Here

So last Friday was an interesting day here at AgroLiquid headquarters.  It seems that some time ago, Tim and Stephanie, along with Burt, our Education & Outreach Manager, had a great idea to help train Michigan's FFA chapters for their state skills contest.  So Burt spread the word among the chapters and Tim and Stephanie designed the training.  They put together slides of information on growing crops, crop uses, crop seed id, weeds, weed seed id, and probably lots of other stuff too.  They also made handouts to take home.  There were over 80 FFA students who took them up on the offer.  Troy kicked off the day with an enthusiastic speech, and was joined by the always popular Farm Guy.  (Those aren't poinsettias on the back table, but different crops for identification.  Harder than it sounds.)
Tim and Stephanie are former FFA members who remember what the state contests are like themselves.  They also prepared demonstrations, such as the seed id on the back table.  So they went through a lot of material.  They got a good meal and then back to the classroom for a short while longer before being dismissed with a head full of knowledge.  It was an overwhelming success and the kids and their advisors are already asking for a repeat performance next year.  Once started, you can't stop. So look for version II next time to be even better.
Everyone liked the building and the meeting room.  In fact several chapters posed for group pics around the sign out front.  (Now there is some good publicity.  Hope their parents all see that pic.)
Even the company souvenir stand had some business.
If you know Troy, you know that he is passionate about FFA and the future of youth in agriculture.  He serves on the Michigan FFA board and is active in other states activities as well.  Plus Tim and Stephanie get to give back to an organization that played a big part of their lives.  And Burt was a previous FFA advisor himself, so it's good to keep that going.  So AgroLiquid delivers high performance crop nutrition for today's growers, but also gives assistance to future farmers and agribusiness people as well.  Good luck at State.