The Mayflower School District was the last one in Faulkner County to develop an agriculture program, but it’s going strong in its second year in existence, Superintendent John Gray said.
He said establishing a program in the high school had been a goal of his for five or six years.
“We worked on it for years beforehand to get it all together, to arrange the finances,” Gray said.
“I’m not really sure why they never did [have an ag program],” he said. “They had some business programs, like welding programs, and they shut them down. That was before my time.”
Ron Bigham, instructor and FFA adviser, took the agri-teacher position in Mayflower when the program started in fall 2013. Bigham said he was surprised that the rural district had never had an agriculture program, but he was impressed with the new facility and program.
Bigham previously taught agriculture classes at Genoa Central in Texarkana, Arkansas.
“It’s top-notch, state of the art; they did not cut any corners when they built the building. When they did this; they did it right,” Bigham said.
The 3,003-square-foot metal building, which houses two classrooms, a workshop and storage space, was constructed in 2013. The district received a $280,000 state-partnership grant toward the $742,082 construction project, and another state Department of Education grant to buy equipment, Gray said. Also, he said bids came in lower than expected for a middle school built two years ago, and about $500,000 budgeted for that project was put toward the agriculture program. The district already owned the 80 acres on which the agriculture facility was built.
Bigham paused a few times midinterview to direct students, who were making deer stands for a fundraiser to benefit the school’s FFA chapter. Bigham said the school district funds equipment and consumables, but the fundraiser was held to earn travel expenses for FFA members to attend career-development and leadership events.
The agriculture classes are popular, Bigham said. “We have a little over 100 kids a day, like 105 or something like that,” he said.
Gray said the high school has 375 students, so that’s a good percentage of students involved in the program — 28 percent. Students were surveyed to gauge their interest in having an agri program, he said.
“It’s been very well-supported. … I went there yesterday, and the classroom was full,” Gray said.
Senior Riley Norman, 17, also said he was surprised Mayflower didn’t have an agriculture program until last year. Norman said he took agriculture classes for practical experience.
“The reason why I got involved is I like doing hands-on work, … and it’s fun getting to work and build stuff,” he said. Norman said he and a friend built a deer stand, and he was building one last week in class. Norman has also built a picnic table, a table for his home and an end table, and enjoys building birdhouses, he said.
Norman doesn’t participate in FFA activities, and he plans to major in business management and marketing in college, not agriculture. However, he said the skills he’s learning in class will help him the rest of his life.
“If something breaks; I can fix it. If I need something welded, I can weld it,” he said.
Bigham said the FFA chapter is popular, too.
“The FFA program is really kicking off. We’ve had a lot of good success the last two years showing livestock and judging,” he said.
Mayflower’s livestock-judging team in its first year qualified for the state FFA livestock judging contest and ended up in the top five. The team finished in the top five at the state FFA livestock judging contest this year in Fayetteville, too, he said.
“We’ve made a pretty good showing at the county fair, district fair and state fair the last two years,” Bigham said.
The students’ first time to show animals on behalf of the school at the Faulkner County Fair brought a slew of accolades.
“We had the reserve grand champion market hog and reserve grand champion market lamb, and then at the district fair in Pine Bluff, the Southeast Arkansas District Fair, we had the grand champion market lamb. This is in the first year,” Bigham said.
“We had several kids win showmanships along the way with their livestock projects, and at the state fair, we had a division-winning market lamb.” He said the winning lamb in those instances belonged to his daughter, Alex Stark, a high school junior, and the hog was student Justin Sewell’s, who has since graduated.
In 2014, at the county fair, Stark had the reserve grand champion market lamb. At the Arkansas State Fair last year, Stark had the Division 2 grand champion market lamb, the Division 1 reserve grand champion market lamb and the Division 6 reserve grand champion market lamb.
“I’ve been in 4-H since I was about 8. I joined FFA as soon as I could in ninth grade, when I was 14,” Stark said. “I enjoy showing livestock. We have a judging team, livestock judging, and we get to travel a lot with that, and it’s a lot of fun, and we get to meet a lot of new people.”
Alexis Harness, 16, said she grew up in Mayflower, and agriculture is what she loves. She’s taking classes in the agriculture program, and she is a member of FFA.
“I’ve wanted to be in the ag program, so when they first brought it here, I was very excited,” she said. “I have rabbits and chickens, and I show them in the fairs and stuff. I have horses, but that’s not really part of FFA; it’s more of a 4-H thing.”
Harness said she joined FFA “because it gave me more opportunities for scholarships and helped me overcome [my fear of] public speaking. I used to be real nervous.”
Several students were already showing animals through 4-H clubs in the community, Gray said, but the practice hasn’t been supported in school by an agriculture program.
Leigh Helms, county extension agent for 4-H youth development, said in an earlier interview that Mayflower has two 4-H clubs. When the district announced it was adding an agri program, she said it would “complement and be an asset to the school district because agriculture is the basic element of our lives, from the food we eat to the tires on our vehicles.”
“To us, it’s a career program,” Gray said, and agriculture is just one possibility. “It’s a very good fundamental program for many careers.” Gray said the building-trades program has been “really, really popular,” and welding, for example, is used in the oil-field career.
Bigham said he sees agriculture classes as valuable for any student, regardless of the student’s career goals.
“The program introduces the kids to a completely new world, the world of agriculture, which is so vital in our daily lives. It teaches them the value of agriculture. The shop program gives them hands-on experience, and it gives some kids an outlet to have a career and to further their education with a different career,” Bigham said. “The biggest thing about the FFA — the FFA mission kind of sums it up.”
According to its website, “[FFA] is dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.”
“Whether it be public speaking, the responsibilities through exhibiting and showing livestock, that kind of stuff …,” Bigham said, “it teaches them life skills.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.