One thing I think everyone can agree is the best part of Agriculture Governors School: field trips. Obviously, the Chipotle, Walmart, hiking the Cascades, and bowling trips are icing on the cake, but the learning experiences are my favorite!

Visiting the farms was what I was looking forward to most when I applied to governors’ school. One time I was at my friend’s house and he showed me a video of his brother, who’s also one of my role models because of his passion for agriculture, at Virginia Techs beef facility. Watch the video here:

Class of 2017: Graduate finds a calling and a path to service through agriculture

After watching the video and seeing my friends brother so happy to be there, I knew I really wanted to go.

When we finally had the opportunity to tour all of Virginia Techs agriculture facilities, the one that stuck out most to me was the swine center. At the swine center, we got to see the breeding sows, boars, and my favorite, the piglets. The tour guide even let us wrangle up some of the newly weaned piglets and place them in new pens.

Other learning opportunities we had that day was, of course, visiting the beef facility, equine center, sheep barn, and StREAM lab. Earlier in the week, we visited Kentland farm where we learned about weed management, drones, and soybeans. This week we visited the new dairy facility and learned about the dairy process. Fun Fact: Virginia Techs milk is sold to the local prison!

With more field trips to come like Radford College night, blueberry picking, swimming at Claytor Lake and more, it’s going to be a fun last two weeks! I’ve learned so much from visiting and see the working farms I never would have learned in one of my agriculture classes in school.

This post was written by Hunter Joseph Carson, a 2019 Governor School Student

Edited by Ibukun “Dami” Alegbeleye, a 2019 Governor School Leader