She Believes in the Future of Ag

THAYER, Neb. – Stacie Turnbull still gets goosebumps about the portion of the FFA Creed that states, “I believe in the future of agriculture.”?Every day in her role as the Nebraska State Director of Agricultural Education, Turnbull strives to work hard to display this belief in her words and actions.?

“When I was in high school at North Bend, it blew my mind at the first National FFA Convention that agriculture was so vast,” Turnbull began.?“I thought it was just corn and pigs – but they talked about everything from greenhouse production to beekeeping.?At that point, I knew I was going to go to college and study Ag Journalism and Ag Education.?I wanted everyone to know how big agriculture truly is.”?

Turnbull’s initial “ag education” was spending nearly every weekend on her grandparents’ farm, “I loved every minute of being with my grandparents.?They raised broilers and were hog producers and had cattle.?I spent a lot of time washing farrowing and finishing barns.?I mowed and herded a lot of chickens in my early life.”

After high school, Turnbull headed to the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.?She married Clint in 1997, who started his career as an agronomist under the mentorship of Tom Hoegemeyer of Hoegemeyer Hybrids.?This is also when Turnbull started her ag teaching career at Scribner-Snyder for three years.?Tom inspired Clint to continue improving crop production and the couple both decided they wanted to pursue more education.?That’s when they headed to Iowa State.

“Our oldest daughter Rebekah was three years old when we moved,” Turnbull recalled.?“She was young enough she could sit in college classes with me.?She became nervous about heading to kindergarten because of all the homework she thought she would get after listening to my college classes.?When she started kindergarten, she came back home and said, ‘This is easy.’”

“Clint was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait for 18 months in the middle of working on his masters,” she went on.?“While he was deployed, we adopted two kids – Zach and Bryce.?My parents had been foster parents so it was a natural fit.?Once we got our first foster child, Clint was sold too.?He tried to call from Iraq during the adoption hearing and eventually he was able to reach the judge right after the adoption was finalized.”???

This was a busy, growing time for the family and learning continued, “When 9-11 hit, we had classmates in college from Sudan, Iraq, Kuwait, and Turkey.?They were all very supportive during that time and we all learned from each other.”

Turnbull completed her masters while Clint was deployed and later her Ph.D. in Ag Education.?Clint would later earn his Ph.D. in Plant Breeding as well.?Another child was born, Clinton, right before the family left Iowa too. The next stop was Canton, S.D. where Turnbull taught ag education at Alcester-Hudson.?Baby Josephine was the final child to join the Turnbull family.?

One of Clint’s old high school friends was Edwin Heinze in York County.?The family worked out a deal with Edwin to start a cowherd project for the kids.?Their daughter Rebekah eventually bought a calf of her own that died not long after, Turnbull said, “This was her introduction to how agriculture can really be.”?

The cowherd has been hands-on for the Turnbull kids. They figured out the rations and picked out genetics.?They also showed at the County Fair every year and sometimes at the State Fair and continue to butcher the livestock and sell the meat directly to consumers.?The Turnbulls have always had a deep desire to provide real-life agricultural experiences for their children.?These frontline experiences travel with them as they grow into adulthood.

In 2010, the Turnbull family moved to York County where Clint started working for Monsanto and Stacie did some consulting work for the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.?She also taught agricultural courses for five years at York University in York, Neb. Then her dream job opened up and she began serving as the State Director of Agricultural Education, “My role is to support teachers, that is the goal.?They are working their tails off and my job is to help find curriculum, professional development, and funding for them.”

Turnbull said she greatly appreciates the support ag education receives from ag business, the relationships with community colleges, and other colleges that help offer pre-service trainings and other educator resources.?She also credited the many individuals who support teachers on a local level and through the Nebraska FFA Alumni and Nebraska FFA Foundation.?

“We have 248 agricultural educators in Nebraska, in formal secondary programs.?There are also a lot of other types of agricultural education taking place, including tribal schools, after school programs, urban programs, cultural gardens, and programing,” she said.?“There are lots of cool things going on in agricultural education.?Ag education is fun, but it’s also challenging to stay current on everything that is going on.”?

It has also been challenging in some areas for educators after the pandemic, “COVID impacted every school differently.?It did have an impact on some communication and coping skills for some students as well.”

“Teachers are required to do so much and there is a lot more pressure on them than ever before,” Turnbull admitted. “Educators wear a lot of hats during the day, from making sure students are alert in class to the mental health needs that are on the rise.?I can’t deny the challenges that are out there.?The best way I can describe some of the more serious issues is a teacher I know that left the classroom and I spoke to her a year later.?You could tell she missed the classroom, but she told me she felt more respected one year in her current position than 12 years in the classroom.?That is not okay.?Improvements need to continue to be made.”

Turnbull said what gives her the most hope is the diversity students and teachers are exposed to through ag education programs and FFA, “There is a lot of growth in ag education in the eastern portion of the state.?There are many students at the Bryan High School FFA program in Omaha who are as passionate about being involved with agriculture as much as students from Ogallala.?A lot of the growth in ag careers are in the eastern portion of the state too – everything from ag finance to precision ag and more.”

She also noted students from a broad background are very interested in how to address food security issues, “There are a lot of food deserts in Nebraska.?You can be in a very remote rural area and have a food desert or you can be in the middle of the city and not have access to the food needed.?In Litchfield, Neb., much of the food they eat in the cafeteria is grown in the greenhouse they have at school.?In Burwell, they grew kale on vertical towers and ate it fresh off the tower as well as processed it into kale chips.”?

Omaha Bryan High School has also started a pen pal program between urban ag students and peers across Nebraska. The Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) program is also helping with this effort, “At the State FFA Convention we are getting those kids together face to face.?This will be a great experience for them.”

“It’s so important to recognize the diversity across the state of Nebraska, not only color and nationality, but also economic, the crops growing, and the variety of livestock and other ag products grown and produced,” she pointed out.?“Goats are an example.?There are show goats but also a growth in goats for meat production because there are new markets growing for these types of products, due to the ethnic diversity within our state.” ?

Regardless of the backgrounds of both students and teachers, Turnbull reiterated that it’s all about bringing agricultural education full circle, “For example, our son Clinton takes an animal science class and gets excited about genetics and feed rations.?Then he takes that information and uses it to raise livestock in his Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE).?He furthers the experience by testing his skills in FFA competitions, such as agribusiness and livestock judging. Each of these aspects – the classroom learning, a students’ SAE, and leadership development through FFA – tie together, ideally with people in the community interacting with and supporting these students along the way.”

“FFA is really all about leadership development – and we are developing tomorrow’s leaders in agriculture and in the State of Nebraska,” Turnbull went on.?“It’s all about that three-circle model – ag education in the classroom, supervised ag experiences and FFA.”?

“We have 15,000 students in Nebraska going through our 209 traditional, formal ag programs,” Turnbull pointed out.?“We also have some really cool opportunities like the zoo program in Lincoln and Omaha where students are learning animal science.?Our tribal schools are also leading the way in ag education opportunities.?For example, members of the Omaha Nation are growing food by hand, taking food home to eat, and selling food at farmers’ markets.?Programs like these are helping the larger community greatly.”?

“Being an ag teacher is a great career.?My hope is our communities support our teachers and grow that level of support.?They are great people who know their community, their students, their content, and care deeply about their students, and we need to let them do their jobs,” she said adamantly.

In closing, Turnbull said it’s all about keeping communication alive and always challenging the ag industry to do better while everyone continues learning along the way, “The public doesn’t always know the farmer.?We need to be able to advocate for ourselves and share our stories.”????