Farm Progress

Rural community hosts Agriculture Awareness and Appreciation Day for students

Local businesses, area organizations and county agencies visit with elementary to high school-aged students about agriculture.

Shelley E. Huguley, Editor

September 15, 2018

16 Slides
Olton, Texas, 4-H volunteer April Burns, left, talks to students about the organization at the Agriculture Awareness and Appreciation Day, Olton.

Friday, Sept. 14, local businesses, area organizations and county agencies set up booths at the town square in Olton, Texas, to teach elementary through high school-aged students about agriculture. The Agriculture Awareness and Appreciation Day was sponsored by Olton Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture.

“There are a lot of different aspects to agriculture many kids don’t know about. I’m hoping they’ll learn food does not magically show up in a grocery store but that there are seeds farmers plant in the ground which need fertilizer and rain or water, which we are pumping out of the Ogalalla Aquifer," says Chamber Manager Adrienne Synatschk.

Katherine Drury, High Plains Underground Water District education and outreach coordinator, says her primary goal for the day was, “I want the kids to know the name of their aquifer.” Drury had each group of students say the name out loud in unison, “Ogalalla Aquifer.” She also talked to them about simple ways they can conserve water.

See, Students: How many of you think agriculture affects you?

About the Author

Shelley E. Huguley

Editor, Southwest Farm Press

Shelley Huguley has been involved in agriculture for the last 25 years. She began her career in agricultural communications at the Texas Forest Service West Texas Nursery in Lubbock, where she developed and produced the Windbreak Quarterly, a newspaper about windbreak trees and their benefit to wildlife, production agriculture and livestock operations. While with the Forest Service she also served as an information officer and team leader on fires during the 1998 fire season and later produced the Firebrands newsletter that was distributed quarterly throughout Texas to Volunteer Fire Departments. Her most personal involvement in agriculture also came in 1998, when she married the love of her life and cotton farmer Preston Huguley of Olton, Texas. As a farmwife, she knows first-hand the ups and downs of farming, the endless decisions made each season based on “if” it rains, “if” the drought continues, “if” the market holds. She is the bookkeeper for their family farming operation and cherishes moments on the farm such as taking harvest meals to the field or starting a sprinkler in the summer with the whole family lending a hand. Shelley has also freelanced for agricultural companies such as Olton CO-OP Gin, producing the newsletter Cotton Connections while also designing marketing materials to promote the gin. She has published articles in agricultural publications such as Southwest Farm Press while also volunteering her marketing and writing skills to non-profit organizations such as Refuge Services, an equine-assisted therapy group in Lubbock. She and her husband reside in Olton with their three children Breely, Brennon and HalleeKate.

Subscribe to receive top agriculture news
Be informed daily with these free e-newsletters

You May Also Like