Young Farmers from across Tennessee are coming off a successful weekend at the Tennessee Young Farmers & Ranchers Summer Conference that happened in Lebanon. They got the weekend started by touring George McDonald's Catesa Farms in Riddleton, TN.
Thomas Capps
Inspiring the next generation of farmers. Hello and welcome to Tennessee Home and Farm Radio, I'm Thomas Capps.
George McDonald
They are the future of agriculture. They have so much potential in front of them, so much enthusiasm.
Thomas Capps
Young Farmers from across Tennessee are coming off a successful weekend of the Tennessee Young Farmers and Ranchers summer conference that was held in Lebanon. The two day conference gives young people in agriculture the chance to network and get caught up on the latest in the industry. It all started last Friday with a tour of Georgia McDonald's Catesa farm Riddleton Tennessee. McDonald grows thousands of acres of corn, wheat, strawberries and watermelons.
George McDonald
I like to show them some of the things that we've done through the years that we've been successful at., some things we haven't been successful at and try to inspire them to be active in Farm Bureau to be active and leadership in their community, in their state, in their country, and supporting and promoting agriculture.
Thomas Capps
Blake Morrison of Grundy County is on the Tennessee Young Farmers and Ranchers state committee this year. He says seeing an operation like Catesa Farms and hearing from a successful farmer like George MacDonald is helpful and encouraging.
Blake Morrison
It's always exciting to see how somebody else can farm in Tennessee you get to see a lot of different aspects a lot of different views on what they do. Versus maybe what you do on your personal farm.
Thomas Capps
A previous member of the Tennessee YF&R group MacDonald knows firsthand how important it is to be with like minded people in the industry and have older farmers to come to for advice and help.
George McDonald
Part of our heritage is passing from one generation to the next generation. And what we're doing today is very much a part of agricultural heritage of trying to pass experience and knowledge on from one generation on to the next and it's like I always tell people you know when you go to things like this when you're young you bring back five buckets full of information as you get older you start gathering kernels even at my age, I still gather kernels of information and eventually we get another bucket full.
Thomas Capps
A bucket full of knowledge to keep agriculture going for another generation and help feed the world. For Tennessee Home and Farm Radio, I'm Thomas Capps. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
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