Agriculture plays a big role in Wyoming, but agriculture is not all just farming and livestock. Every year the Laramie County Cowbells ask the Frontier FFA for help hosting the Ag Expo. The Ag Expo is a two-day event that is held at the Archer Fairgrounds, were the Cowbells invite all the fourth graders in the country to come and participate. The students go through rotations throughout the day learning about the different aspects of agriculture.

Bre Rosner,11, was one of the FFA members who volunteered to help the Cowbells. “I really enjoy getting to teach the younger kids what agriculture is all about”, said Bre.  “The Ag Expo really shows what agriculture is, that we’re not all farmers and ranchers”.

The kids go through rotations throughout the day. “Every year the kids are most excited to watch the dogs herd the cattle,” says Bre. One of the most popular rotations is the Cattle Dog demonstration, where they gather in the Archer Fairgrounds arena and watch the dogs herd the cattle. The kids are amazed by how the dogs know so many commands.  Another favorite is the roping, where the kids get to learn how to rope and practice on roping dummies. “The roping always is a big hit, they love it” says Bre.

Agriculture business is a huge career field; these people may not raise livestock, but they still play a huge role in agriculture. These positions can include being sale clerks or an agriculture loan officer. Being an ag teacher and a farm and business manager play huge roles in agriculture without growing crops. There are also special lawyers that just handle agriculture related cases.

FFA is a student led organization that teaches students about agriculture and leadership. To be in FFA students must be enrolled in an agriculture class. Each of the four years in class covers a different side of agriculture. Freshmen take Ag Leadership where they learn leadership skills as well as a basic interdiction to agriculture. Then the sophomores take Ag Science, were one semester is animal science and the other semester is plant science. Juniors take Ag Business, where they get introduced to the business side of agriculture. Seniors take Ag management, where all the pieces from the past three years of ag class come together.

After high school “About 65% of the students who took ag at East High, attend college” said Mr. Allen, the agriculture teacher. Out of the students that attend collage a great number of them go into one of the many careers in the agriculture field.