In an effort to better advocates of agriculture for our families and communities, me and my good friend decided to partake in a program that is offered by Kansas Farm Bureau. It is a 10 month-long course consisting of 6 different sessions held all over Kansas. Yesterday was our first session in Manhattan and we covered some basics of agriculture. It was a great day spent with a great friend in a great town. That’s a whole lot of greatness for one day!

We started our morning bright and early at the Farm Bureau headquarters to gear up for the day and meet everyone. We had a pretty diverse group of people ranging from pretty knowledgable about agriculture to some who had never learned much about it. It was a great experience to learn how to engage in conversation with people about ag.

Our tour guide was awesome! His name is Glenn Brunkow, a super cool farmer and rancher who also serves on the state board for Farm Bureau. He also has a blog called dustonthedashboard.blogspot.com.  He gave us a tour of some of his and his father’s operation. His dad seemed like one of the sweetest men you would ever meet. I could have talked to him all day!

First we made a stop at one of their pastures where he talked about their Angus cattle and how they run their operation. Did you know in Kansas the cattle industry is 23 billion dollars a year? Pretty neat.

Then we made our way to a soybean field and then a corn field. I’m not as familiar with those crops so it was fun to hear about that and how they rotate those on their land.

We finished our afternoon at K-State checking out some different crops and weeds before heading home. I’m looking forward to the next session where we will tour a dairy farm and ethanol plant. Those will be new to me and I’m sure it will be an awesome learning experience!