BEALLYOUCANBE

The Best Person For The Job

Anglia Webb was elected president at one of the country's largest FFA

chapters, earning the respect of ag teachers and the friendship of fellow classmates.

SINCE

^{thedayshefoundout herdad}

earnedtheAmerican

Farmer

degree backin1963,Anglia

Webb

haswanted to be involvedin

FFA. Now

atage 18.

she seems destined to follow in her father's footsteps.

Anglia(pronouncedAn-je-la)was born and raised on a tobacco farm near Hahira, Georgia. She grew into farm

work

naturally, often helping her dad Larry,

mother

Willene

and

younger brother Larry,Jr.. harvest tobaccoon the 175-acre farm.

The Webbs

^rentan additional 150 acresand

grow

soybeans and corn alongwith tobacco.

"Dad

told

me

about going to the national convention in Kansas City,"

Anglia remembers. "He's even gothis

FFA

jacketstillhanginginthecloset."

To

Anglia,itseemedonly natural she

become

activein

FFA.

ButMr.

Webb

worriedshemight notenjoy the

same

opportunities as hedid."Girlsin

FFA

were unheard of in 1963," he recalls Fortunately for Anglia, things ha\e changedforthebetter.

"When

Angliawasin

my

ninthgiade classsheneverspokeaword,"sa\s loe Lineberger, head vo-ag instructor at

Lowndes

County HighSchool, Valdosta, Georgia."Ofcourse,shewasthe

onK

girl intheclass,too.That

may

havecoiiliib- utedtothesituation."

With

some

encouragementfromhei

FFA

advisors.Angliasoonopened up She beganagrape vineyard, sheeppio|Ci.t and a fishand wildlifeproject, which later

won

adistrictaward.But she laced the biggestchallenge ofall lastyear

when

sheranforchapter president

—

nosmall undertaking at

Lowndes

County, the thirdlargestchapterinthe nation.With over400

members

(15competingforthe

same

office),the election night meeting wasbiggerthan

some

states'

FFA

con- ventions.

"Angliaisourfirstfemale president,"

says

Tim

Gibson,horticulture instructor at

Lowndes

County."That'snot achange in tradition ^-theyjust electedthe best personforthejob."

As

itturned out, Angliadid such a good jobshewasalsoelectedoneofeight

Anglia

Webb,

right,

was

encouragedto join

FFA

byher dad, Larry

Webb.

TheSationalFl'TlRE

FARMER

Cover Story ^ruiure Mrmer

By

MichaelWilson

statewide

FFA

vicepresidentslastyear.

Still,thosefirstweeksaschapter president werenoteasy.

"Some

of the boys resented taking ordersfrom agirlatfirst,"recalls Mr.

Gibson. "Butthey learnedrealquickthat they'reequal.Ifagirlisgoingto

do

the work,she'sgoingto getthecredit."

Award-winning Chapter Withso

many FFA members

to lead.

Anglia'sjobwaschallenging.BothAnglia and heradvisors agree, the chapter is

stronger because

many members

are involvedin different projects.

"One

dis- advantage is that it's hard to have a cookoutfor400studentsandit'shardto finda placetomeetattheschool,"says Mr. Gibson. "But youneverrunshortof people

who

wanttogetinvolved.There's always somethingforeveryone."

GIBSON: "Some of ^the boys resented taking orders from a

girlatfirst.

But they learned

real

quick

that

they were

equal.^"

Mr. Linebergeragrees. "We've been ableto

work

alotof theurbanstudents intotheprogram,alongside theproduc- tion agriculture students.We'redoing^it by stickingwith one part of the

FFA

motto: 'LearningByDoing.'^"

The

philosophyhas paidoff inawards andrecognitiontothechapter. In 1983

Lowndes County

earnedabron/eaward for theirBuilding

Our

American

Com-

munities

(BO AC)

project,a$10,000re- landscaping of the high school.

"Our

students did theentireprojectfromthe ground up, drawingupblueprints and doingallthe work," saysMr. (jibson.

"The

more

involved the studentsget in

hands-on work,they

more

theyenjoyit

andthe

more

theylearn."

Anotheradvantage: students not en- rolled in vo-ag can see forthemseUes

how much

fun\o-ag canbe."Theysee these

FFA members

andtheywantto get intothatagclass,"reportsMr.Lineberger.

"Theyseewhat

FFA

isoffering that's where

we

havetheedgeonother\'oca- tionalgroups."

Like so

many Lowndes County

^stu-

dents,Anglia's

FFA

experience has given heran edge- forthe future.She's not sureshe'llmatchherfather'sachievement, but the leadership skills gained from

FFA

have been worthhereffort.

"I'vegained alotof confidence since I'vehadthechancetospeakatbanquets andthestateconvention," shesays.She's currently finishing herfirst year asan agriculturaleducationmajorat

Abraham

BaldwinAgricultural CollegeinTifton, Georgia. She's leaningtowardsa career asavo-aginstructor,but Anglia

knows

there are

many

opportunities yet to explore.

"Ibelieve there'sa

demand

for

women

inagriculturetoday."she says confidently.

"I'm not afraidto tryanything." •••

Angliaandvo-ag instructors

Tim

Gibson and JoeLineberger inspect her vineyard.

February-March./W5

A ^{Closer Look at}

Tobacco

By

MelissaK. Whitt

ANGi.iA ^Webb,

like

many FFA mem-

bers

who grow

tobacco,

knows how much work

ittakestoproduceagood crop.It'snot easy, but with alittleluck and

good

weather,a

good

tobacco crop canbeabigwinneratharvesttime.

Tobaccoisgrownprimarilythroughout the southeastern part of the United States.

To

haveagood,strong crop,it's

necessarytoplantbylate

May when

the raincangivesoilthemoistnessneeded fortheplanttotakeroot.

The

tobacco must be checkedoften as

itgrows.

To

prevent seedproductionand

make

theplant

grow

better,

some

stalks must be "topped and suckered" (see cover photo).

Tobacco

harvestisunique

among

all crops.It

means

hoursof

work

cutting, hanging and grading. "Tobacco is a labor-intense crop," says Anglia.

"We

use a mechanical harvester,but itstill

takes tenpairsofhandsto getitharvested and

hung

inthe barn."

Flue-cured tobaccoisstripped from thestalk inthefield.It is

hung

inabarn whereaheatsource

warms

thetobacco anddriesit quickly. Burley tobaccois

harvested onthestalk and "air-cured"

beforeitsleavesarestripped.

Eachstalkisdividedinto five different sections called grades.

A

^grade isthe colorandlocationof thetobaccoleaves onthestalk."Lugs"andlong red grades arelocatedonthelowerhalfof the plant whereleavesarelarger.Theselea\es are used primarilyto

make

chewing tobacco andstrong brandsofcigarettes. Short redandtipgrades arefoundontheupper halfof thestalkandareusedmostlyto

make

cigars.Brightgradessitdirectly in the middle of the plant and are the mildest, used to

make

finer brandsof cigarettes.

Afterthisprocessiscompleted,

some

tobaccos are bailed in large

wooden

boxes.

When

filledto capacity,thea\erage

box

weighs from 85 to 100 pounds.

Finally, after

many months

of back- breakingwork,thetobaccoisready for

market. •••

oil FFA ^ONLINE

Computers: Breaking Classroom Traditions

Computers in vo-ag classrooms are changing the way teachers teach. Are they also changing the things FFA members learn?

(Editor'snote: Thisisthe first inaseriesof^articles describing differentwayscom- puters are used by

FFA members and

vo-aginstruc- tors.)

THE ^Computer

^{Age. Its}

growth is staggering.

Considerthefollowing:

According

to

Market

Data Retrieval,four years agoonly21 percentofall U.S. high schools

owned

oneor

more

computersfor studentsto use.Bytheend of 1983ithad

jumped

to86 percent.Bytheendof1985,

analysts predict nearlyallhigh schools will haveavailableat leastone micro- computer.

Vo-ag classrooms haveplayed a big partinthatgrowth.State

FFA

officials saywellover half ofallhigh schoolvo-ag departments

own

or have access to a microcomputer.

They

predictat least80 percentofall vo-agstudentswill have accessbytheendof the1985schoolyear.

This surgeisnotwithoutitsgrowing pains.AccordingtoDwight Horkheimer,

FFA

computerspecialist,changingtech- nologyisoutpacingideasabout

how

to putcomputersandsoftwareto practical use. We'velearnedtobuild computers betterthanwe've learned

how

to use them.

"Beforean agteachertriestofillhisor herclassroomwithcomputers,oneim- portant questionneedstoberaised:what

do we

plantouse thecomputerfor?"says Mr. Horkheimer. Unfortunately, very little research has been done on

how

computers shouldbe usedinvo-agclass- rooms. Evenso, agteachershave put themtouse,one

way

or another.

One

problem bothstudentsandteach- ersface is availability-in most vo-ag departments, there simply are notenough

InstructorSteveZibell,fromOregon,Wisconsin,uses hisschool's computerlaboratoryforvo-aginstruction.

computerstogoaround."It'sliketeaching

woodworking

withonlyonetablesaw,"

saysHorkheimer,aformervo-aginstruc- tor. "Itcanbedone, butittakes additional

management

of available resources."

Ron

Koci, vo-ag instructor

from

Middleton, Wisconsin, has onlyone

com-

puterinhisdepartment. Buthe'ssolved the problem by using sign-up charts, wherestudents"check out" thecomputer perhour, learning asfreetime permits.

DickAide,fromthe

Waupun,

Wiscon-

sin,Chapter, usescomputerprojects for twoor

more

students- they share

work and

thecomputerexperience.Other ag teachershave arrangedtoletvo-agstu- dentshaveaccesstimeintheirschool's computerlab,wheretenor

more com-

puters

may

beavailable.

What Do

StudentsLearn?

An FFA

surveyshowsthatprogram-

ming

and computer literacy activities takeupamajority ofcomputerinstruc- tion.Quizzes, practiceandtestsonagri- cultural subjects placed second. Other areasofcomputerinstructionintheag classroom include wordprocessing, spread- sheets,data basecollection,recordkeep- ing and

some FFA

computer-related activities.

Traditionally,production agriculture has been the standard subject taughtin mostvo-ag classrooms.But, asHorkheimerpointsout, agricultureischanging. "I don't think

we

needto stress production agriculture as

much

todayas

we

usedto,"

he says. "If there is one major gaporweaknessin highschoolvo-agcurricu- lum,it'sinthearea ofag marketingand farm busi- nessmanagement."

A

glance at the facts proveshistheory.Accord- ingtoa recent reportinthe WallStreet Journal, over22percent ofall

Amer-

icans are employed in

some

area of agriculture.Butonly 2 percent areactually employedinproductionagriculture,or farming.

And

only12percent ofallU.S.

farmersaccountfor63percentoffarm sales.

Using computers in the classroom couldgoalong

way

tobridge that gap,

Horkheimer

says.

"Teachingstudentsaboutag marketing

demands

keeping abreast of current prices,trendsandinformation,"he adds.

"Afterteaching high school vo-agfor eightyears,1can

remember

goingtothe textbook shelves onlyto find old and outdatedmaterials.

Computer

technology can solve this problem by providing currentmarketingand management."

It

may

take

some

time before"tradi- tional"vo-agteacherswill

move

froma totalproductionagcurriculumtoinclude marketingand management."It'sdiffer- ent foreach community," Horkheimer says. "But

we may

find that it's the students thatwilllead thesechanges.

The

currentdropinvo-ag enrollment

may

bea sign thatwe'renotmeeting theirneedsforthefuture." •••

IheSadonat II11RE

FARMER

STALK ON THE