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Here are the 16 FFA members traveling the state this year, inspiring the next generation to engage in agriculture.

Mindy Ward, Editor, Missouri Ruralist

April 28, 2023

1 Min Read
Missouri FFA Convention and Sam Tummons
BE BOLD: Missouri FFA members gathered during the state FFA convention to not only compete and celebrate, but also elect their leader for the next year. That honor went to Sam Tummons of the Columbia FFA chapter. Mindy Ward

Columbia FFA member Sam Tummons is the 2023-24 Missouri State FFA president.

Delegates elected Tummons during the 95th Missouri State FFA Convention in Columbia. It marked the start of a yearlong extensive travel itinerary across the state, promoting ag education and FFA to members, legislators and ag industry representatives.

His background

Tummons has built a successful custom hay business as part of his Supervised Agricultural Experience. He invested in a variety of equipment, including a pickup truck, flatbed trailer and a new tractor, to make his business more efficient and profitable.

Sam sells brome, orchardgrass, cool-season mix and prairie hay to local farmers, helping to improve the feed quality of their livestock. In addition, he repairs and resells farm equipment and runs a landscaping business, employing other FFA members to work on local jobs.

During his FFA career, Tummons served as chapter vice president and president, along with Area 4 president. He competed in leadership and career development events, such as the following:

  • FFA knowledge

  • extemporaneous public speaking

  • grasslands evaluation

  • horse judging evaluation

  • livestock judging evaluation

  • farm management

After graduating high school, Tummons plans to attend the University of Missouri in Columbia to study agricultural education.

Ready for responsibility

Missouri is one of 50 chapters across the country, but one with high expectations. Here are some numbers:

  • 26,716 members

  • 356 chapters

  • 962 state degrees (2023)

  • 582 American FFA degrees (2022, first among all states)

  • $58 million in student income (2020 from SAEs)

Not alone

Tummons is joined by 15 other FFA state officers who will continue to motivate members to excellence through their theme of Ignite, Embrace, Empower.

They include:

Read more about:

FFA

About the Author(s)

Mindy Ward

Editor, Missouri Ruralist

Mindy resides on a small farm just outside of Holstein, Mo, about 80 miles southwest of St. Louis.

After graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural journalism, she worked briefly at a public relations firm in Kansas City. Her husband’s career led the couple north to Minnesota.

There, she reported on large-scale production of corn, soybeans, sugar beets, and dairy, as well as, biofuels for The Land. After 10 years, the couple returned to Missouri and she began covering agriculture in the Show-Me State.

“In all my 15 years of writing about agriculture, I have found some of the most progressive thinkers are farmers,” she says. “They are constantly searching for ways to do more with less, improve their land and leave their legacy to the next generation.”

Mindy and her husband, Stacy, together with their daughters, Elisa and Cassidy, operate Showtime Farms in southern Warren County. The family spends a great deal of time caring for and showing Dorset, Oxford and crossbred sheep.

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