Angus L. Catchot

Agriculture has always had an impact on my life, however people today do not seem to realize how much their everyday life revolves around agriculture. The wooden desk you write on, the food you eat, the clothes you wear—all of those things are available because of agriculture. Agriculture is like a machine, it works only as good as its parts and operators enable it to. If any part fails or is weak, then it affects the entire system. We continue to need people with the ability to occupy these areas to make sure that the “machine” will be maintained. One way people make the machine work so well is by helping each other and educating others about agriculture. I cannot think of a time in my life that I have not enjoyed helping people. Whether I was tutoring younger kids in high school, helping at livestock shows, volunteering at animal shelters, or providing assistance to farmers, I have always found a way to help someone somehow. Many times producers are wasting money performing a practice just because that is how they have done it for years and years. When you take the time and patience to work with that producer and help him or her to see how implementing something a different way could benefit them, seeing that producer realize that the change they just made is going to boost their operation that year, to me there is no greater reward and all it took was time, patience, and the willingness to help someone. Even though I don’t know exactly what the future has in store for me or what sector I will end up in, I plan to do my best to educate everyone about agriculture, and to continue helping people each and every step along the way, because if we don’t stop and take the time to help others, then who will?