NEWS A Texas Team Ag Ed Publication
January 2017
Spotlight on Agriculture Education Shane Crafton, Henrietta
Happy New Year to everyone, and I hope you had a wonderful holiday season! I hope every one of you took some time away from the job to be with family and celebrate the Christmas season. We have all finished a very busy fall FFA season, and each of you deserves some time away. Congratulations to everyone who competed at the State Leadership Development Events, and a special congratulations to those of you who are now state champions. By the time this article gets to you, stock show season will be in full swing. Many of you may have already finished your county show for another year and will be heading to Fort Worth, if you’re not already there. We, as ag teachers, are faced with many decisions that affect ourselves, our school district, and most importantly, the students that we are entrusted with as we travel to stock shows and spring contests. Those decisions are centered on how we travel to and from these events, where we will stay, how much school students will miss, and how we will feed and care for the projects that our students and their parents have entrusted us with. Ultimately the parents of these students will make the final call on all these decisions. However, we are the ones who will be judged for mistakes if we use bad judgment in any of these decisions.
Travel issues are tough for many of us. Stock shows take place in the most inclement weather of the year, and there is nothing we can do about it other than take extra care to allow plenty of time to reach our destinations. Don’t put the lives of your students and yourself at risk to reach a stock show. What I would like to focus on are the decisions we make that have to do with animal care and feeding. We are trusted by our schools, students, and parents to make the right decisions as they pertain to feeding and grooming projects for show. We are to remain ethical, but at the same time, the pressure to win has never been greater. We are all aware of the new restrictions as of January 1st on feed additives and medicines that are now not to be used without a prescription from a veterinarian. I would encourage you to be very careful what you give to your students’ projects and to maintain good documentation of these treatments to cover yourself in case of testing at stock shows. Remember, just because you can buy it at a stock show doesn’t mean it is legal or ethical. I realize there are a lot of questions on what the impact of the new regulations will be and how we are to implement them. Your association is working on providing training for this very topic, and we hope to have
answers for your questions by this year’s conference in Arlington. Until then, we must be careful and error on the side of good judgment. Don’t put yourself or your students and parents in jeopardy because of a bad decision you made. It is not worth the consequences you will face to put your students in the spotlight by unethical means. Think about the message you are sending to all the students in your program that are watching ever thing you do. How can you hold them responsible for bad decisions if they see you making questionable decisions? We have a good thing going with the stock show system we have in place. Continue on page 2