Agriculture Teachers Change Lives & Communities

This column, written by Kentucky FFA Foundation Executive Director, Sheldon McKinney appeared in a February 2026 edition of  The Farmer’s Pride. 

In this role, I regularly get to bear witness to the power of a great agriculture teacher. Excellent agriculture teachers have the power to not only transform a students life, they can shape communities by the leadership they grow. I see this with our current agriculture teachers and programs, who are actively growing over 25,179 leaders in 186 FFA chapters across Kentucky. I hear about the impact of agriculture teachers, when I visit with donors, who reflect on the legacy and influence of their FFA advisor. Agriculture teachers really do change lives. 

I had the high honor of getting to know and be mentored by Dr. Charles Byers. He and Dr. Rodney Tulloch led the University of Kentucky Agricultural Education program for decades. They, alongside folks like the late Dr. David Coffey and Dr. Tony Brannon, grew a generation of excellent agriculture teachers across Kentucky and the nation. They all taught the importance of connecting with a student, of being a rooted leader in school & community,  of creating engaging lessons and making a space welcoming to all students who enter through your classroom door. 

Dr. Charles Byers passed away in January, after a long life of investing in others. His funeral service was full of his former students, spanning nearly six decades of Kentucky agriculture teachers. I sat in his service and I thought about how this one man taught so many folks how to be a great agriculture teacher. I tried to count the thousands of students his students would have encountered over the course of their careers, and positively influenced with lessons & stories he taught them. How many individuals, families & communities had been impacted by this man’s legacy, most never knowing who he was? It’s a number we will never know, but for certain, a tremendous legacy. 

Dr. Byers was also the very first Forever Blue donor to the Kentucky FFA Foundation. He helped establish our endowed giving program in 2014, choosing to forever fund the Job Interview Career Development Event. I could never forget Dr. Byers and I will never have to. I get to tell his story and see the impact he’s made every single year, when a fresh new crop of FFA members get to learn, grow and be rewarded for their efforts – because of his gift to our Forever Blue Endowment, an instrument of perpetual generosity. 

Teaching agriculture is not an easy job. It’s more than a job, it’s a lifestyle. It’s committing to your students, your community, agriculture and constantly growing & changing. Soon, you will see all over Kentucky FFA social media, our 2025-2026 Golden Owl Award Winners as we surprise them and recognize the constant effort of committed and thoughtful agriculture teachers across Kentucky. With the support of Nationwide, we get to award twelve regional winners $500 and our state winner, $3,000! It deeply matters that we recognize and encourage good teaching. 

If your life has been influenced by an excellent teacher, especially an ag teacher – I ask that you thank them. Tell them what they meant to you. As I sat in Dr. Byers funeral, I bet at least 75 hands went up of former students attending. Let’s not wait until the end of our days, to tell the people who matter, that they mattered. Let’s be encouragers who invest in others – just like ag teachers do every day.