Lessons in agriculture and life
By Steve Fairchild

MFA scholar Katie Allen turns her enthusiasm for the livestock industry into a pathway for education.

As a student in the University of Missouri’s agricultural journalism program, Katie Allen has managed to propel herself into the larger world of a major university while remaining true to her roots—livestock agriculture. She has done it through wide participation in extracurricular activities, careful consideration in coursework and a passion for agriculture. Allen is a perfect snapshot of the goal for the MFA scholarship. Even while she is still attending school, she is advancing the cause of rural culture and agriculture.

While she was still at home, fair time at the Allen household must have been chaotic. In her career showing livestock, Allen took a regular menagerie into the show ring. She exhibited a hat trick of market animals—lambs, hogs and steers. Daughter of Kevin and Brenda Allen of Marceline, Mo., and oldest of six siblings, Allen credits 4-H and what she learned through her livestock projects as critical factors for what she has accomplished.

She has taken those lessons and the confidence they instilled with her to college. At the University of Missouri, Allen has immersed herself in a student culture that ought to pay dividends in the future. She is on the MU livestock judging team, president of the MU Collegiate Cattlewomen’s Association, secretary for Ag Communicators of Tomorrow, and a member of Block and Bridle and other clubs in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. She works at the career center in the CAFNR dean’s office. And somehow, she manages to find time to go to class. Allen said she could have graduated early, but chose to add a minor in agricultural economics and animal science to her resume. She plans to graduate in 2008.

Attending a college that has enrollment nearly 10 times the size of your hometown can be a daunting proposition. Allen said the sheer size of MU seemed a challenge as she left home. “But when I got to CAFNR, it was a second home. People know each other, and we have some of the greatest faculty in the nation. It is good to know people and have people know you by your name. It’s good to know you have that support.”

And being involved is a tonic to the nerves a farm girl faces entering a big university. “I’d be lost in a big place. But I think if you participate [in clubs and organizations], the relationships you gain help you learn more than just what you learn in the classroom.”

Observe the scene at CAFNR for very long and you begin to see that it is students like Allen who make the atmosphere close-knit and familial. What the students may not realize is that the very atmosphere that attracted them to the college is being perpetuated by their participation. They are not just going to school, but leading the school to its future.

Agriculture is lucky in that sense. Many of its youth carry an inborn sense of the agricultural community. “My passion is livestock and animal agriculture—because that’s how I grew up,” said Allen. “If I had to pick, I’d like to stay in that area.” But, she said, she is interested in agriculture in the whole of its many aspects.

Allen was awarded the MFA Scholarship from Marceline MFA Agri Services in 2004. She said that she applied for many scholarships as college approached. And she got her fair share. “I think much of that is due to my agricultural background and 4-H. People in agriculture want to support youth. They know that is where the future is.”

Make a difference now

Further evidence of rural youth honoring their roots was made plain early in 2006 when Allen and others in the MU chapter of the Collegiate Cattlewomen’s Association trekked to Louisiana to help mend the devastation left behind Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The club has traditionally taken a spring trip, and this time, in the wake of the hurricanes, they decided their time could best be spent by lending a hand. With monetary support from the Missouri Beef Industry Council, Missouri Cattlemen’s Association, Missouri Cattlewomen, Missouri’s Cattlemen Foundation and Farm Credit Services of Missouri, members of the organization traveled south to provide muscle and farm girl ingenuity. They went during spring break and took in sun much differently than the students with sand between their toes on Daytona Beach or Padre Island.

“We wanted to provide help in a rural area,” said Allen. And help they did. With coordination from the Southern Mutual Help Association, an agency devoted to helping rural communities, the young women were directed to a farmer near Erath, La., who had lost livestock and infrastructure during Hurricane Rita. After a career as a tugboat pilot, the local farmer had hoped to retire—running cattle for income. But when Hurricane Rita swept through, he was left with no feed and no fence. He was forced to sell cattle. To help, the 10 women from CCA, along with the group’s advisor, Darla Eggers, did what any good cowhand would do. They built fence.

“He had the materials on hand and had scraped off the fence line for us,” said Allen. In the next day and a half, while dodging the area’s snake population, the women built a mile of fence.

Allen said that to locals and observers, a team of Missouri girls building fence seemed to be an oddity. “I think they were surprised when they came back the next day,” she said. “People asked us where the men were. We told them we could handle it.” The efforts of Allen and the other young women in the club were recognized recently as Collegiate Cattlewomen’s Association was named outstanding organization by CAFNR.

Learning to live, living to learn

The Louisiana experience reinforced Allen’s belief that there is much to be learned in doing. She said that if there is advice she could offer to younger students, it is to get involved. “By being in Cattlewomen, I have gone a lot of places. I’ve done a lot of community service,” she said.

Being on the livestock judging team for a Big 12 university is another earned honor that brings wider experience. Allen said the team travels throughout the school year on several multiple-day trips. Because she has to explain her school absences, it’s also a lesson on how the rest of society views agriculture. As an ag journalism student, Allen must deal with School of Journalism professors who don’t quite understand the unique world of livestock. “They don’t always get it when you say, ‘I’m going on a competitive livestock judging trip,’” said Allen.

“People in the journalism school ask, ‘What is ag journalism? Do you write about cows?’” said Allen. The question engenders a response explaining how agriculture is much more diverse and important than that.

And that is as good of an example as any for why the MFA Foundation scholarship is important. It helped launch the college career of an articulate spokesperson for agriculture.