Fun on the Farm

The birth of an animal on the farm leads to an mindset of excitement for everyone. The excitement of when babies will be born, the excitement of wondering how many newborns there will be, and the excitement of how to manage all the newborns at the same time. Excitement for everyone, that is, except me.

Hi guys! My name is Kyler Langvardt and I’m serving as the North Central District District Reporter this year! I hail from Chapman Kansas, where I was raised on a family farm. I attend Chapman High School where I’m involved with, well, just about everything.

When I first joined FFA, my parents always joked about my affection towards agriculture. Their favorite story to tell occurred when I was just 8 years old. It was a cold winter day, and our family had just started raising sheep. With our sheep being relatively new, the charm of them hadn’t quite worn off, so everytime there was a new set of lambs, my siblings rushed out to see them. I, on the other hand, was sitting in our living room, playing my video games.

After my parents finally talked me into going outside, I hopped from hole to hole, following in my father’s footsteps so I wouldn’t get any snow in my boots. When we finally reached our barn, my mother pulled out her camera and tried to capture the perfect picture of me and my siblings holding the cute newborn lambs. Forcing a smile on my face, the picture was taken and I blurted out, “Okay, I saw them. I’m going back inside now.”, and rushed backed indoors to resume my game.

In all actuality, I would have rather raised my herds of online animals in Farmville, then taken time out of my schedule to go outside and help my father with the daily chores. So the cycle had begun. The cycle of not wanting to help my dad with chores for my 4-H project, getting to our county fair and happily tugging my goats around the arena, then bawling my eyes out when the goats went off to market, even though I had barely got to know them.

My early days of showing animals didn't always end the way I would have liked, but now I love going to different shows and meeting new people!

My involvement in agriculture stayed minimal the next few years, only consisting of my dad hauling me around for chores and the weekly visits to our livestock sale barns. The thought of spending my perfectly good Saturday morning doing repetitive chores instead of sleeping in made me cringe, that is, until I joined FFA. Don’t get me wrong; waking up early in the morning for work is still a struggle, but I now understand why it’s necessary. Only being exposed to one aspect of agriculture in my early years had worn me out, but when I joined FFA, I was able to experience all aspects of agriculture.

Agriculture isn’t just those farmers and ranchers putting day after day of work in, to feed the growing population. It’s a complex network that includes business men, activists, and everyday people who love this industry.

My awesome teammates and I! With each others help, we've learned not just how diverse our team is, but how diverse the Agriculture industry is as well!

It seems like the message thats given to our generation is, that to be successful, you have to get off the farm. Now, it’s more than likely I’ll never end up back on my family farm, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be involved with it. In the future, I hope to be able to promote farms and agricultural businesses in a positive light through Agricultural Communications. Whether it’s designing an innovative website or writing stories about inspirational agriculturists who can motivate the next generation, I’ll still be on the farm. I challenge you to look past the typical agricultural mold, and find a way to make a difference on not only the farm, but the agricultural industry as well!

Your 2014-15 

North Central District Reporter,

Kyler Langvardt