Logan County FFA students tour Monsanto plant

[February 24, 2011]  FARMER CITY -- Students from three local high schools got an inside look at the ag industry by touring the Farmer City Monsanto plant through Logan County Farm Bureau's annual "Acquaintance Day" on Tuesday. With the help of the Farm Bureau, 33 FFA students from Hartsburg-Emden, Lincoln and Mount Pulaski high schools learned about daily operations of the seed corn production facility.

Acquaintance Day, sponsored by the Farm Bureau, introduces students to the workings of a local agribusiness. Recognizing that the agriculture industry is vital to Logan County, the Farm Bureau educated local ag youth about the different opportunities that exist in the industry beyond farming.

The Logan County Farm Bureau selected the Farmer City Monsanto site because of the state-of-the-art facility.

"The tour shows the phases of seed corn production, beginning with how corn is received from the field and then cleaned, conditioned and packaged through various stages in the plant," said Christian Cloeter, seed quality supervisor at the Farmer City plant. "We show how corn is husked, sorted, dried, shelled and stored in our 1.2-million-bushel bulk storage area where it is conditioned, treated and packaged."

Logan County Farm Bureau board member and local Emden farmer Brent Hellman helped organize the tour.

"It was great to show local youth what opportunities exist in agriculture," he said. "The Farmer City Monsanto employees did a great job of leading us through the plant and exposing us to all of the equipment and technology that it takes to run modern seed production."

Betsy Pech, Hartsburg-Emden ag teacher, agreed that the real take-home message from the tour was that there are endless career possibilities in agriculture.

"The tour guides were great in explaining how their collegiate careers led them to their current career and how there are opportunities in a large agricultural corporation like Monsanto, even if they decide to pursue a career outside of agronomy," she said.

Kelsi Ubbenga, Hartsburg-Emden FFA chapter president, said the tour was a great way to introduce nontraditional ag students to the seed industry.

"Not everyone lives on a farm or has a farm background, so the tour really helped students understand what it is like to be involved with production agriculture," she said.

Cloeter believes in taking advantage of any opportunity to show people what the plant and local agriculture do.

"It's always nice to interact with young people and show them what we do and the steps we take to ensure the highest quality products," he said.

[Text from Monsanto news release]