Former state FFA officer and current Indiana Agriculture Director, Joe Kelsay is happy to be headed for Sullivan, Indiana Thursday night for the Sullivan FFA Banquet and a ribbon cutting for their new Agriculture Learning Center. Kelsay told HAT he’s thrilled with the ag education efforts of Sullivan schools and the FFA chapter there.
“As I understand it the corporation has given them about 10 acres of land behind the elementary and junior high school where they’re going to build a building and have the opportunity for lots of hands on learning experiences for kids K through 12 on up through adults, with some added opportunities for outreach about the realities of agriculture.”
Plant and soils labs and a livestock area are planned for the learning center.[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/05/Joe-Kelsay-update.mp3|titles=Joe Kelsay update]
Also this Saturday afternoon Jerod Chew and Jordan Seger from ISDA will attend the Indiana Wildlife Awards Banquet and accept the Agriculture Conservation Award along with other members of the Indiana Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative group.
“This is an award we’re really proud of and surprised in fact that we were named to this. The CCSI, as it’s known, is a group that promotes a systematic approach to production agriculture. That includes things like continuous no-till or strip till, cover crops, precision farming, and nutrient and pest management. And how do you do all those things in this agricultural system? It really helps to educate and bring farmers up to a level of understanding that one action can really build upon the previous action.”
Jordan Seger from the environmental stewardship team and Jill Pritchard in Diversified Agriculture are new staffers at ISDA. Kelsay explains more about those changes in the HAT interview.[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/05/JoeKelsayMay2012.mp3|titles=Joe Kelsay ISDA Director]