When I hear folks talk about the advantage of FFA, it’s usually people who grew up on a farm saying, “FFA is more than farming, it’s about leadership and developing their self-confidence, it’s not just feeding hogs and driving a tractor.”

When we hear about freshman girls who went to their first FFA meeting just for something to do and years later end up winning a national award for being a diesel mechanic, we sit back and marvel at how her life was changed with one simple decision to attend a meeting.

When we watch quiet young men learn to speak out, commanding an audience, when just a few years earlier they could hardly command their five-year-old little sister, we see the value of leadership training that FFA affords our youth.

I agree, it is so much more than the physical labor of managing a farm, but sometimes physical labor is the perfect fertilizer our non-farm youth need in order to grow and flourish. And I’m happy to say we provided that fertilizer yet again for our FFA members as we cleaned out the chicken pens in the FFA barn.

If you’ve ever smelled chicken manure, you know how bad it is.  I can handle most any stink; hogs, cows, horses, but chickens are different.  They really do stink up a barn in a hurry.

With shovels, pitchforks, wheelbarrows and brooms, it was all we could do to keep twenty-four teenagers working. When our four kids were young and we were cleaning out calf pens, it was my job to keep them all moving toward the goal of clean pens.

I resumed that position last week with the FFA students and as they tried to remove themselves from my eye’s view. But to no avail, my mom powers engaged and I began calling out names of kids who I knew were trying to escape the dirty, smelly work of pitching chicken manure.

With only a solid 45 minutes per class time to any work done, it took us two days to get the pens all cleaned out and ready for the next project. And I deemed it a success when twenty-four pairs of hands were dirty and laughter filled the barn as they worked as a team to get the job done.

You’re right, FFA is not all about farm work, but farm work is an invaluable tool in teaching today’s youth about American Agriculture and a successful life.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication.