Texas Ag Tour - Tuesday

Hello! Or as they say down here - howdy ya’ll! We are still on the road in Texas making the rounds on our Ag Awareness Tour. This morning we departed from Abilene and made our way southeast towards Waco. Along the way, we made a pit stop in Dublin, TX, which is the home of the original Dr. Pepper (made with Imperial Pure Cane Sugar) and we grabbed some glass bottles to enjoy on our road trip. For Regina, it was especially neat that we stopped there since her hometown is Dublin, Georgia! Same name, but not quite the same as home for our southern peach ;)

Once we arrived in Waco we visited the Texas Farm Bureau with Mr. Glasson, Mr. Pringle, Mr. Hall and many of the other staff members that work within the TFB. They were gracious enough to treat us to lunch and plenty of conversations about the current state of the agricultural industry and what effect it will have on Texas agriculture. We were also proud to find out that this state has over 422,000 farm bureau families and that the TFB is a loyal supporter of the Texas FFA Association and the Texas FFA Convention.

From there, we made our way further south to the capital city of Austin to visit with the Commissioner of Agriculture Todd Staples. Mr. Staples is a former Texas State Officer and a very big advocate of agriculture, agricultural education and the FFA, which is exactly who we need making legislative decisions in our industry! After our visit, we drove a few blocks to the Texas Agriculture Education and Ford Texas FFA Leadership Center for a tour and to meet the staff that makes the activities of the Texas FFA possible, before heading to dinner at the notorious Hills Café. There we had dinner with Mr. Jake Paine from La Quinta Hotels and Mr. Stan Ray from Farm Credit Bank of Texas who are sponsors of the FFA. It was so nice talking with them about their passions and what has made them so successful. We were very thankful to spend time with both of them, as well as Blaze (Leadership Development Coordinator) Matthew, Lora, James (Texas State Officers).

Tomorrow we will be going to the capital building and continuing our trip southward to San Antonio. I can’t wait to see the Alamo! Hope all of you are recovering from an A-MA-ZING FFA Week! :)

God Bless,

Hannah