America’s Land Auctioneer

What Happens When Ag Teachers Drive the Bus: Students Win, Communities Grow, and Careers Ignite

• Kevin Pifer + Jack Pifer + Steve Link + Andy Mrnak + Jim Sabe + Christian Miller • Season 9 • Episode 9

Share episode

Ever wonder how a shy teenager becomes the person who can run a meeting, lead a team, and shift an 18‑speed without grinding a gear? We sit down with educator and rancher Colby Steeke to trace that journey—from a ranch in southwest North Dakota to a 1,300‑student CTE powerhouse where agriculture education meets real-world opportunity. The story starts with roots: parents who teach ag, sisters who show goats across the Midwest, and mentors like the late Butch Howland who believed travel and exposure could change a student’s life. Then it accelerates—Denver Stock Show meat judging champions, late-night practices, and the kind of high expectations that turn small-town programs into statewide standouts.

We open the doors to the Southwest Area CTE Academy in Dickinson, where seven partner schools share 18+ programs ranging from diesel mechanics and heavy equipment to floriculture, food science, and health pathways. You’ll hear how mobile CDL and heavy equipment simulators give teens safe, high-fidelity reps on 10-, 13-, and 18-speed transmissions, and how a USDA-certified mobile meat processing trailer turns pork loins into chops while teaching food safety, value-add, and entrepreneurship. Colby makes a compelling case for SAEs, scholarships, and travel—from state leadership conferences to national convention—as the engines that build confidence, networks, and career clarity for students who may never step on a farm but will shape the future of food and fiber.

We also tackle the ROI question head-on. Not everyone needs a five-year degree to build a good life. Many agriculture-adjacent careers—welding, CDL, precision ag, HVAC, dental assisting, agronomy tech—start with certificates or two-year programs that pay back fast and meet urgent local needs. Along the way, social media gets reframed as a teaching tool: TikTok Tuesdays, classroom-ready clips, and a national community of ag teachers swapping ideas that work. If only one percent of Americans farm, then ag education is how the other ninety-nine percent learn what feeds and clothes them—and how thousands of students find real, respected careers. Subscribe, share with a parent or student who needs options, and leave a review with the skill you wish school had taught you.

Follow at www.americalandauctioneer.com and on Instagram & Facebook
Contact the team at Pifer's

SPEAKER_00:

All right. Three, two, one. Welcome to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Jim Sabby, your host for this Saturday morning out here in western North Dakota. And uh, you know, I got a great guest on that I'll introduce here in a little bit, but I want to talk a little bit about Piffers. You know, Bowman had their big regional sale this last weekend or last week. Uh, great sale, a lot of tremendous equipment. Uh, we're looking for more equipment to auction off. Uh, we're looking at some equipment up this week, uh, up in that New England region area. So if you want to get a hold of us, uh, uh, we got enough guys out in the country looking uh at machinery, get a hold of us. We'll get to your place uh within a couple hours or a day and uh check it out and see what you have. Land sales. We have a lot of land sales. I think yesterday we had four land sales on a docket or on Thursday, I guess. But um, a lot of land sales happening. Estates trust, get a hold of Piper's. Uh, nobody does it better than Pipers. And you can call this Bowman office and we'd be glad to help you out or find the right agent for you over in your area. And uh, so I'd be glad to help you out that way. But a lot of things happening. Remember, it's Piper's 25th anniversary. Uh, Kevin and the crew have been running this thing for 25 years. I know I've been here about 19 years, Andy's been here about 18 years. Uh, so we've kind of been here from the inception of this whole thing. So, again, Pipers, uh, we're here for you, and uh, we'll be talking more later in the show about uh what sales are coming up. But right now, I want to introduce a guest that everybody in uh probably the upper Midwest knows. Um, a guy from uh well, he graduated from Scranton, went to uh grew up in Rame, and uh Colby Steak. So nice to stake steak, I say it both ways, but anyway, Colby is a instructor up at Dickinson. So good morning, Colby. Good morning, Jim. Thanks for having me. You know, we we talk about ag education is kind of what we want to talk about and what goes on in you know the schools with the Voag program, uh, the FFA, the 4H, but now you brought it to a different level uh where you're at. But I want to first start, you know, the first time I met your dad, both your parents are ag teachers. Um, first time I met your dad, come for an interview at the for teaching voeg and starting up FFA and in Scranton, and we didn't have that before. And I don't remember how many years ago it was, but I was on the school board back then, and and uh, you know, we asked him, is there anything we can do to help? And what do you what do you need? He said, I need a bigger room. He said, I'll have just about every kid in Voag and FFA, and you know, you kind of sit back, well, that's kind of a lofty goal. Well, by God, he's the only teacher that in Scranton that we've added on for when he was teaching because he needed more room. I don't remember I in all reality, I think we only had a couple of kids that weren't in FFA or Voag or something for all those years, but they he knew how to bring kids in, and now he's actually took off uh quite a few years to run the ranch and help try to follow you kids around. And so your mom took over the Voag in Scranton, and now he's actually she's still in Scranton and he's back teaching in Bowman. So you've got VoAG and FFA and 4-H in your blood, so deep. I don't know it's gonna take a scoop shovel to get it out of there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, you know, I talk about that, like you know, with my students. That's kind of my intro every year to every class is you will not find another person um like like myself, or I am an ag teacher. Both my parents are ag teachers, and actually, my aunt is still is an ag teacher, and Abby is uh she's a 4-H extension agent. Um, so truly it it courses through our veins. Um, agriculture courses through our veins, and and uh ag education is is our passion, um, and that's our family, and and that's all we know, you know, and going back through all that.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, you guys, and you know, you you're same age as my daughters, um, but you know, you guys would go to shows all around the country in the upper midwest. You raise goats and and sheep and and and lambs for all that, but you guys would be that was your family vacation during the summer, right? Let's go to all these, and you know, same with the Murnoch family out here, uh Brent and Jenna. This is what they do with their kids, and it's their family vacations, and that's what they love to do. You guys love to do that, and you know, your sisters I know did very well with the goat, and I don't remember uh that was quite a few years ago, and well, I shouldn't say quite a few, probably four or five years ago, but right, you know, um went clear across the country showing this goat.

SPEAKER_01:

Correct. Um, yeah, no, growing up, I mean, on our ranch, that was, you know, we always talk diversification and and uh you know, we are cattle ranchers first, I would say, just in our area, but then also we've raised a lot of a lot of boar goats, a lot of show show goats, and then just commercial Hampshire sheep. Um, you know, in high school and growing up, you know, State Fair, you like you said, um, our vacation of the year was the 10 days at the state fair. Um, you know, and and that was that was our getaway. Well, then, you know, so when I was in high school and and growing up, we we kind of, yeah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and now my sisters have even taken it a step farther. And um, this past weekend, they were in Grand Island, Nebraska for exarbon, and and they're going to Kansas City here in a couple weeks, um, still showing goats and still exhibiting livestock, but now more of giving back to the to the younger generation and and the youth and helping kids get started in in agriculture. Um, so so yeah, it that's I mean, we grew up showing livestock and every species, um, yeah, every species you can net you name it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you know, and and I was very fortunate. I mean, when I was growing up, we just had a shop class, you know, Bowman had the FFA scrant. We didn't have any of that, and I was so fortunate that my girls were able to take the Voag from the the FFA advisor, and they've learned so much. And I can tell an FFA kid anywhere in the crowd, um, it just how well they speak and just their their mannerisms. You can tell that all over, and my girls learn that, and I think that's what gives you know those kids a step up, whether it's 4H or FFA, but gives them a step up over everybody else just because of what they've been taught. And when you're going in FFA, I mean it it's unbelievable to watch a meeting on how things are done, right?

SPEAKER_01:

And I mean, that's that's the way we were raised, right? Um, Jim, yourself, your your daughters, um raised in in production ag. But but when you look at nationally, um, you know, only one percent of Americans are involved in production agriculture, whether it's farming or ranching. And we can actually look at students that way right now. Um, about one percent of my students are involved in production ag. Um, and that does not, I mean, being in Dickinson and more of our urban area, but even down to Bowman. Um, but those students, those those young adults that get exposure to agriculture, I mean, that's the foundation that is laid. Um, you know, the work ethic, the workplace skills, the leadership skills, being able to, you know, uh their speaking abilities, and and it's all laid with the foundation of agriculture, you know, and and that's very true.

SPEAKER_00:

So I mean, you've had this family indoctrination of everything here, and then you get out of high school, you know, was that your first thought to go to college to be an egg teacher? Or um, you know, I mean, it it it came to you at a time, and and here you are, you know. Yeah, you know, you know, it was a path from college to you know your first job, and then boom, now here you are.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, you know, it's it's funny. Um, that yeah, when I was going through high school, right? Um, just like a lot of high school kids say, well, I'm not gonna do what my parents did, right? Uh I I graduated high school and I was like, no, no way. Well, then I was elected to serve as a North Dakota State FFA officer in 2016, 2017. And throughout that year, um, of getting to see the backside and getting to see ag teachers from across the state that I grew up with, that I knew personally, but getting to see them in a professional way and seeing how much they impacted students and young adults, I kind of realized that, hey, that that actually seems like something I would really like to do. Um, and so yeah, going to college at Dickinson State, um I knew agriculture was gonna be a part of my life for sure, graduating high school, um, let alone the education side. And then after my freshman year, my first year of college serving as a state officer, I, you know, Dickinson at the time did not have ag education. Um, now they do um through NDSU. They have the four plus one program. Um, so students at Dickinson State can get a get an ag education degree. So I didn't actually graduate with an ag ed degree. Um, I graduated with an ag business degree. And and the the the legend of uh Butch Howland, um, who is from Crosby, uh called, you know, I was a month away from graduation in college, and he called and said, Hey, what are you doing after you graduate? It was the middle of COVID, and I was like, I don't know. That's actually, I said, I've been applying for jobs, and there's not a lot of job openings out there, nothing that I really can see myself doing. And he goes, You ever thought about being an ag teacher? I'm like, Yep. I said that's what I've always wanted to do, it's the dream. Um, so then I yeah, moved up and started my ag ag education career.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, it's kind of funny you bring up butch. He's um kind of the one of the most famous guys, and he's passed away now, and and may the good Lord bless his soul. But he was so active in that he was an auctioneer, uh, ag teacher. Uh he did did everything up there in that northwest corner of North Dakota for everybody, and he's one of those legends that is missed by everybody, and and uh so you you bring him into the picture. Um you know that's that says a lot to what he thinks about the program trying to draft somebody to come into Crosby, North Dakota, basically, uh is what was going on.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly, yeah. Um, pull him out of the free agency, right? Um and and yeah, and he brought me up there and I spent three great years up there. Um, you know, he he was the ag teacher there for a lot of years. I know I couldn't put a number on it, but really built, you know, built a program up there that had that was one of the it was a premier program in the state of North Dakota. Um and and then once he retired and went to the auctioneer side, um, you know, they had a lot of turnover there in Crown. Um but um so that but the kids were still there, the students were still there, and the the the supportive community was definitely there.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's hold this thought and and get ready for the second segment because that's a great story with Butch. But uh again, um Jim Sabby, your host for America's Land Auction here. I got Kobe Stake, um uh lives in Dickinson now, but he farms and ranches. Uh his folks without uh down here in southwest North Dakota. I see him on a horse every once in a while on a lot of Snapchats, and he's got some great Snapchats. So look him up if you could. But you know, whether you're buying or selling land equipment or real estate, trust the team that built on the experience and results. Pipers Auction Realty and Land Management, their farm and ranch auctioneers, land brokers, and land managers are the best in the business. Visit Pipers.com today. And when it comes to doing auctions and land sales, nobody does it better than Pipers. So, folks, uh listen to us. Uh the next segment, we are coming up, and uh, we'll be ready for our next segment right after a word from our sponsors. Three, two, one. Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Jim Sabby, your host for today. Got a great uh guest on today, Kobe Stake from uh Rame, North Dakota, Scranton, North Dakota, and wherever he wants to be. Dickinson is where you're located at now. But uh, I'd like to thank you. Let's continue on with uh Butch Houghlin and and what he's done for all ag programs throughout the upper Midwest, actually.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, well, and just yeah, so so Butch was up there for a lot of years, and and Butch was actually one of the one of the I mean his he had taken students from anywhere from Russia to Costa Rica, um, and and had expanded students' um perspective of agriculture globally, um, which is which is actually something that once I I took over, um, something that we kind of set as with their alumni and my advisory board up there, we we did the exact same thing, not in not globally, but taking students to Washington, DC, Denver, Colorado, um, Indianapolis, but that was all thanks to the foundation that that Butch had laid and and that and all of the community who were his former students, right? So I had the most utmost supportive community up in Crosby.

SPEAKER_00:

Um I remember when you started up there and uh you started a meets judging team, correct? Right. And I remember it was a lofty goal. I mean, you know, people just said, you know, he's set this goal really high, and you know, it's our first year. Um, let's see what we can do. Well, tell us about what happened during that meets judging thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so it was it was uh I I'd been there one year and and all of a sudden I got a group of girls together that I knew were were extremely talented. And and we actually I took them down. We were we were second in the state um uh at the state meet judging contest last the year before. So we'd kind of fallen short of our goal of qualifying the national FFA convention. So what we did instead is I took him down to Denver, Colorado. Um, and we went to the Denver Stock Show and Rodeo and competed at in the meat judging contest down there and actually won the the NA the national um national western meat judging contest with a group of four girls in a meat locker that uh you know the sky was the sky is the limit for those kids. They just needed they truly needed somebody to drive the bus. That's that's all they needed. Um, and and a lot of times that's what we are as ag teachers, is just the bus driver, um, giving the students the resources they need to succeed, um, having somebody believe in them and and giving them the opportunity and they'll run with it.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, I mean, I remember when that all came out, and I mean, uh, didn't matter where you're from, we were so happy and proud of what you guys have done up there, and it was it was kind of a a huge deal. I mean, that you start a program and then all of a sudden, boom, in your what second uh year, uh you you win the uh the Denver show. So it's a lot of hard work that goes on, a lot of you know training in the evenings and mornings and and doing all the studying on meets, but that that's something that you've built yourself on, and your dad and your mother do the same thing in the classrooms. And you know, whenever uh you talk to an ag teacher, they're the most upbeat person in the school, you know. Other teachers aren't like that way, but the ag teachers are, you know, because you're dealing with great students. But when you get just about the whole school wants to be in the Voag and the FFA, that tells us something what we're looking at with special teachers.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I think I think the reason we we see the the infinite potential in those students because we spend so much time outside of school with them. Um, like this past weekend, we just attended the North Dakota FFA uh fall leadership conference where I took 24 FFA members um Saturday and Sunday. And I mean, so we spent 48 straight hours together. Um, you know, and that's where you really get to create a relationship with those students and you get to see the the potential that they have. And but then being surrounded around a thousand over a thousand FFA members from across the state and watching your students network and watching them grow and blossom. Um, how can you not be positive about that? How can you not get excited about things like that? You know, and and we understand these students from from their SAE program of working outside of school. And so we get to spend a lot of extra time with those students, um, which just truly shows us their their potential.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And so how long were you up in Crosby? I know you spent uh a few years up there and and then you transitioned down to Dickinson.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so I was I spent three years up there. Um it was a great three years. Um, truly laid the foundation for my career. Um, and we sparked the ag program again. And and now they've got a young gal that came in, um, Rebecca Bummer, and she's she's picked up right where we left off. And so in 2023, I I left Crosby to move a little bit closer to home um and got the opportunity here at Southwest CTE Academy here in Dickinson uh to kind of be an addition to the AG program here and explain what that is.

SPEAKER_00:

Explain what that's all about.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so so I teach here in Dickinson at the Southwest Area CTE Academy. We have seven partner schools and um and over 1300 students enrolled. We are the largest CTE center in the state of North Dakota. Um, as of last year, we offer, I believe it's over 18 different programs, um, and anything from diesel mechanics to culinary arts to heavy equipment operating, ag, architecture design, um, this and health sciences, um, and even more. So, yeah, we're here in Dickinson. Um, we're a two-teacher ag um ag education program. Um, and our in our ag program, um, this last year, we have 410 students enrolled in an ag education uh class. So uh yeah, it's it's uh it's a monster, but it's great. And uh and it's it's a lot of fun. And but you know, giving these students here in an urban setting, um, you know, that agriculture experience. You know, it used to be future, you know, FFA used to stand for future farmers of America, and that's not it's not the case anymore.

SPEAKER_00:

It's I was always told it stood for Father Farms Alone, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Father Farms Alone, yeah, because the because the kids are gone all the time, right? But no, we're just the national FFA organization because we cover anything from floriculture to food science to agronomy, livestock judging, it's not all just production ag anymore.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, and I was looking on uh and I do a lot of social media, but I was watching like over in Scranton, they had uh um I and I don't remember what it's called, but it's like simulators of driving semis, yep, for the kids, and that that's really cool. I mean, they get to learn how to sit in one and drive it and how to shift, and and uh so there's so many more opportunities going on for these kids than what we had, and that's all through the Southwest CTE and our seven partner schools.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, which we have what you're talking about is we have a mobile heavy equipment and CDL trailer that we have two um heavy equipment simulators and a CDL simulator, and we rotate them around the southwest corner. We also have a mobile meats processing facility. We just got that's huge as well. Um, I believe it's it just left. No, it's in New England right now, and the next stop will be in Bowman with my dad. Um, we also have a John Deere Gator that we just purchased um that to give some precision ag simulation um for our partner schools as well.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, we there's a lot of great things going on with uh ag departments and and your voag and your uh basically it FFA, but when you see what's offered nowadays, you know it just keeps increasing, increasing, and doing a great job of uh getting the word out to kids, and you know, you can see how many students you've got in there, you know, throughout the whole area. It's just unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, the big thing I uh we set our hat on here, and and we kind of were talking about this as ag teachers last week um during an ag teachers meeting. It's the exposure of giving these students um the opportunity to drive a semi. You know, how many kids even know how to drive a manual transmission anymore? Giving them that opportunity, giving them the the simulation of sitting behind a wheel loader and running a wheel loader, um, or or a meat processing facility.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, and let's stop right there and get ready for the third segment. We'll go into that with uh driving semis and and the meat lockers and all that. But looking for professional auction service, expert land management, Piper's auction realty and land management deliver uh proven success of the upper Midwest. With the best farm and ranch auctioneers and brokers in the industry, they'll help you get top dollar. You know, visit Pipers.com and see why nobody does it better. And again, get a hold of any one of our agents uh throughout the upper Midwest. You know, they're located in a lot of different towns, but we have three, four of us out here in Bowman. Uh, you got the steel area called Darren Peterson. Get a hold of him and be glad to help you out. So, again, nobody does it better than Pipers. And you know what, we're gonna be right back after this break. Let's just listen to our great auctioneers and our sponsors of this show. Thank you, and we'll see you in the next segment. Three, two, one. Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Jim Sabby, your host for this Saturday morning, and my guest Colby Stake, uh from Rheim, North Dakota, works in Dickinson. And I tell you, he's been explaining the programs that they're they work with at this uh regional center that he does, and how many students. So let's just continue on with what you were talking about, you know, the meat lab and and the construction, uh heavy construction stuff. I will say this as we get older, I'm looking at when we sell equipment all the time, there's more and more people that want automatic semis, um, because people don't know how to drive a clutch. You can see that in pickups and cars that you know uh you could leave the something with a four-speed or five speed sitting on the street, and no one will steal it because they don't know how to drive it. Right. But that's what you guys are out teaching, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, yeah, so so our mobile, our mobile uh trailers that we have that we rotate, um, yeah, the heavy equipment and CDL trailer, simulator trailer. Um, the CDL simulator has uh over 60 different semis and I believe a hundred different attachments. Um, so you could you can run a half-loaded um oil tanker and and truly it'll feel you'll be able to feel it sloshing down the road. But but just teaching kids in different transmissions, 10 speed, 13, 18 speed transmissions, um, you know, that's that's just a small piece. Um, then so what we do is is all of our rural schools and our partner schools, they don't have um enough, you know, quite enough students to have these specialty programs. So what we do is we we feed our ag teachers, our local ag teachers in New England, um, Southheart, Belfield, Beach, Bowman, Scranton, and Kildeer. And so that's where this heavy equipment and CDL simulator was with my mom for the last four weeks and now with is with my dad in Bowman. Um, and then it'll rotate back, uh, it'll rotate back here to and then go to Kildeer, Beach, and Bellfield all within one year. So if you think about the mass number of students that are just getting that exposure, um are they ready to go to be over the road truckers? No, but you may have we may have sparked that interest. Um you know, that that they might want to go down that career field. The meats processing trailer, we are uh we are North Dakota USDA certified. It's a certified trailer, so there's standards that we have to follow. Um, we do not do any slaughter um in in the trailer, but we do do processing. So getting, you know, getting uh full pork loin in and processing it down into pork chops or a pork shoulder and and making um Boston butts and and picnic shoulders. Um, you know, so then getting students the exposure to process their own meat or potentially start their own meat processing um business, which we all know here in rural America, how much of a shortage there is for that. Um, so that exposure is is kind of what we're offering, and um and and then through Southwest CTE, we're here we're able to truly dive in and and give uh more of the um in-depth uh instruction, um, just because of the offerings that we have.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, there's so much more to agriculture than just farming and ranching, like we talked about earlier, you know, the the meat labs and the and anything you do, there's a side things that you know, diesel mechanics, um auto body. I mean, it just the list goes on, and so there's so many more things for people to get into and still be involved in agriculture, you know. And I look at my kids, you know, uh with uh Kate up in Crosby, you know, that was a big part for her to be a part of FFA and Voag, um, to learn a lot of these trades uh after moving up there. But you know, Haley grew up with it on our place, and and and you know, Hannah and Kari had to take these classes too. We made them, um, but they enjoyed it. Um, but when you have the right teacher in place, you're gonna enjoy a lot of things in life.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, well, agriculture is not just cows, plows, and sows, is what I say, right? Um, I mean, we have people that work in New York City that deal with agriculture every single day, but maybe have never been on a farm. Um, you know, so then that aspect of giving um students from the maybe the every one of them are consumers, right? Without agriculture, we'd all be naked and hungry. So um without agriculture to understand the consumer and the producer side and closing that disconnect, um, is is truly what what I think all of us ag teachers strive to do.

SPEAKER_00:

Sometimes there is a very big disconnect between entities, and you start to think, you know, we're all working as a common goal in our business that we do, whether it's me in the auction and in real estate business, uh land and machinery, or or people just uh the sale barns, and uh then you got the seed supply and the fertilizer and the agronomist, you know, you you look at all them, and and there's a lot of available jobs for everybody out in that in those fields. You just got to have the right training to get get started in the right field, right?

SPEAKER_01:

And I mean from there that you talk about the the social media presence that um you know that's where a lot of our students that's the exposure they have, whether it's good or it's bad. Um, and and that's a growing industry of of getting a positive uh perception of agriculture into the public's eye.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, so so we talk about that social media because you're very good at it, and and I I get accused, my girls go, Dad, you're 62. I can't believe you're on TikTok. But the following I'm in is with agriculture people, auctioneers, uh farmers and ranchers, um rodeo people. I mean, it just it goes on and on, but you can pick your groups, but the amount of people that follow and hit and like and and then call and ask questions. You know, I put a lot up on my kids' um on their red Angus. I do that on social media, and I've had people you know message me about you know, they'd like a catalog for looking at their bulls, you know. So there's a lot to social media, there's a lot of bad to social media, right? But I there's a lot of good now. I just I sit and laugh all the time when I'm watching yours, you know, and yeah, it's just but you keep everything humorous, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, and and that's what yeah, so I I have a I have a TikTok page, a small TikTok page of uh, but that's what I focus on is is the ag teaching world and ag education and and the community I have built um of ag teachers from across the nation. Um, you know, I there the main reason I do um social media is is for my students to make me seem more relatable to them. Um and and they and that's a growing interest, right? Um and then, but then also helping that community of ag teachers across the nation of hey, here's a cool lesson I did today, or you know, um, or the struggles that we deal with in education every day, and maybe poking a little bit of fun at it, um, and and just making it humorous, right? And I yeah, my kids call it cringy, but uh that's that's my way of advocating for agriculture and ag education.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and it it is nice to see that there's a lot of pods positives out there, but when you can connect with farmers and ranchers all over the world and other students, ag students and other ag teachers, um, you can make a bigger difference in life than what you really think.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

I do a I do a thing on Tuesdays, uh, that's called TikTok Tuesdays. Um, and I'll find like a really cool informational TikTok that I'll actually show to start class. Um, and because I have learned so much from from TikTok and Instagram reels and Facebook reels of agriculture in Alabama or Florida, um, or just up the road and how a different um producer, you know, I'm being a cattle rancher, the different different ideas and and um that other producers have, and and just being a lifelong learner. Um, I so I I get The both the farm talk and the ag teacher talk it tick tock side, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

And when you start talking about what you guys are doing there, um with the ag program and FFA, I want to kind of just move over to the 4-H and FFA side for just a little bit because you guys are big into that, and so are my kids. But um, it brings a new light to these kids. Number one, respect. Um, you when you see kids, 4-H and FFA kids, yeah. I like I said, I can tell them out from anybody in a crowd. There's respect there, uh, they know how to speak, um, they're very polite, and that's what we're trying to teach these kids going on in this world.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. And and we talk about, you know, through 4-H, you know, these young kids that are getting the opportunity to show a lie, you know, we're raising kids through the means of livestock, um, you know, teaching them the work ethic, the accountability, um, and and then just the nutrition and and health care side. Um, you know, now not every kid, not every student kid gets that opportunity. So, so maybe just giving them that exposure that um, hey, that there is all of this world out there. Um, and yeah, so we talk about FFA, um, then we talk about the leadership skills. We have a demonstration contest. Okay, it's one thing to know something, it's another thing to be able to demonstrate and teach it, right? Um, if but then there's the saying, if you can't do teach, well, hey, here we go. Um, am I a am I an expert in all fields? No. Uh, but uh just giving, you know, giving students that up that exposure is what I is what we all look at.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so I'm gonna give you one minute. I want you just to explain, you know, to somebody new to try to get them into your programs. You got one minute to get this done, but what what can you do? Uh and how can you help these kids out?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh here's what I would tell a young young kid that's that's questioning whether they want to be an FFA or um I would say, you know what? The the aspect of so travel. I give them number one, travel. Next uh this past summer, Kill Deer Bowman Scranton. They went to Ireland for their ag teacher trip uh for an FFA trip. This coming summer, myself and the Beulow Ag program going to um going to Ireland. So being able to see that, but then the money, you know, there is some there's a lot of scholarships out there available for FFA members and and then just truly creating career skills.

SPEAKER_00:

And get back to this in the last segment because this is what's exciting. And again, when it comes to buying and selling farmland, ranches, and equipment, experience matters. Pipers auction realty and land management has a team of industry-leading professionals ready to serve you. See upcoming auctions listings at PyFers.com because when it comes to results, nobody does it better. And again, get back to us, call us, uh, check out our website, Pipers.com. We've got a lot of things going on, a lot of land sales, machinery sales, a lot of agents out there that can help you. And again, we'll be right back for our last segment right after this. Three, two, one. Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer. This is our final segment with uh our my guest Colby Stake from Rheim, North Dakota. Yeah, he's working uh with the ag department and everything up in Dickinson. They include what seven schools you said that um that you have involved with this, but let's continue on to what we were just visiting about.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so I I mean, so travel, scholarships, and then and then career success. Um, you know, we have so we have what is in ag education, we have what's called SAE, supervised ag experience. And that's what expands beyond the classroom. Um, develop developing those career skills um and career exploration that that might give the that student that doesn't know what they're gonna do when they graduate high school, which not very many teenagers do, but it might make them think, hey, maybe maybe I want to go the business route, but then work with farmers and ranchers and and maybe a bank or an accountant, right? Um so, but then creating those career skills of being able to vocalize and and tell and to talk to different people, and but then building a network. That is what I mean. When we were, when I took my students to fall leadership this weekend in Bismarck, there was over a thousand FFA members there from across the state. The amount of lifelong friendships they were able to make um it is is huge. Or we're gonna go to a national FFA convention, um, you know, and meeting kids from across the nation and and building that network. There's still students or kid got people my age that I met back in high school that I'm that I'm friends with on Snapchat or Facebook that are from Kentucky or Oregon or or California, um, and create and just expanding that network to realize that for our small southwest North Dakota um young adults, that the world is wide open and and the world of opportunities for them.

SPEAKER_00:

It is, and you know, it's all about building relationships throughout your lifetime. And and I'm gonna use for me going to college at at Wapton, uh North Dakota State College of Science, and then I went to Dickinson State. But the people I met in college um and are lifelong friends, and the same with the ones from high school, but most of them I was in the egg department, and most of them are all in the ag business. Um, not business part, but the farming and ranching, and some are seed salesmen, uh, been doing it their whole life. Uh, when you start getting guys to be in agronomy, you know, but you meet these guys, you go to every farm show and you're meeting them. But what's nice is I can get to any town in North Dakota and make that one phone call and say, Hey, I got a flat tire, I need some help. Right, these guys will come and help. So you build relationships, and you know, it's nice staying on top of things, but like Dickinson State are really respected because I went there and I already completed my uh schooling at Wafton, went more into ag department and had a blast there. It was it was a lot of fun. Uh, Chuck Stefan, uh, you know, from uh he was a first-year teacher in college back then, and everybody should know Chuck Stefan in Western Dakota, but um, great guy, but he I was more his age, um, because I was I stayed out of school a year, but lifelong friends with Chuck, uh, one of my instructors, and the people I went with to school with there. So you build lifelong friendship, but you also build a big respect amongst rapport amongst all these people, also.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And I mean, so I was part of the Dickinson State um college rodeo team as well. And and I have actually, um, when we've taken trips to national FFA convention, I have called kids that I college rodeoed with or went to college with, and they've set up tours for us. Um, like, and for so then talking about expanding that network, they gave my network gave my students the opportunity to see a feed lot in Iowa or a hog farm in Illinois, um, a cut, a cat farm, a savannah cat farm in um in Indiana, no, Illinois. Um, so expanding that my network just led to to more opportunities for well, me to take my students to. Um, yeah. So, and that was all through just college rodeoing with student with kids from Iowa State or University of Nebraska, McCook, Nebraska. Um, so we taught, but all over the Midwest.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And then you look at that, that's that's the biggest part of college. Um, maybe it's it I know it's different on the ag side, but you build lifelong friendship now. And I'm sure teachers are kind of the same, they got their own kind of groups, um, maybe nursing students. But you get into ag, I mean, it anybody can talk ag walk the walk, but boy, when you can get into it deep with a good friend that you met, like down in Nebraska or South Dakota or Montana. Um, it's really nice to see. I know my daughters, uh, two of them went to Dickinson State, maybe three, I don't remember, but two of them anyway. They're still with friends with the people out in Montana that was in their class with them. And uh, so it there's lifelong friendships, but also it's people you can bounce things off of for more ideas. That's a big thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

No, and then we we talk about the that you know, like me being I know well, there's a guy that I college rodeoed with that is an ag teacher in western Nebraska that you know, I actually ran in and didn't know he was an ag teacher until we went to Washington Leadership Conference and he was there with students, and I'm like, hey, what the heck, you know. Um, yeah, so building that network, and I tell every one of my kids, I don't want you to, I'm not gonna push college on my students, but I will push one thing. I will push you to go to school, post-secondary schooling of some some sorts. I don't care if you go to auctioneer school, I don't care if you go to um real estate school. I I just want you to to go to some sort of after high school education. Maybe it's a nine-month program, maybe it's a six-month program, heck, maybe it's a two-week program. But that's where you're gonna build that network and create a skill and develop a skill that will benefit you for the rest of your life.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, and and we talk about that all the time. And and uh, you know, like our our car club down here in in the Bowman area now, we're gonna start doing scholarships for people going to um two-year schools and then egg uh egg colleges. You know, we want to help them out to get into those type of schools where you know you're a plumber, you're a welder, uh dental hygienist. Um, but it there's just a whole list of heating and air, and then you get into agronomy and ag sales, but there's so much more. But we want kids to get into those programs, and some of them are short, you know, maybe a year long, some are a two-year program, but 16 months. But there's a lot of things you can do that you don't need a five-year degree for, and that's why we're we're trying to push all these kids to go to those because I will tell you this with uh way education is and way students are and way America is 20 of the students are going to college for 80 of the jobs, and 80 of the students are going for 20 of the jobs. So you have a big discrepancy there. Why not get into a field where you can make 80, 90, 100,000 right away instead of spend 200,000 and get 60,000 in? So, and again, I want you to go through what you guys do as a as up there at the school with the seven schools around, and we're gonna kind of recap everything that you guys do and how you help out the small schools.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so our seven partner schools are Dickinson High, and 90, I think it's 96% of our students are from Dickinson High, um, right here in Dickinson, but also Dickinson Trinity, Southheart, Belfield, Beach, New England, um, and Kildere are all of our partner schools. Um, so those those schools, they have students that come here every single day. Now, are they coming as freshmen? No, but they might be coming for um as a senior, coming for our dental assisting program, which we're the only nationally, we are the only um school in the nation that can give you a dental assisting degree when you're done. Um, or our heavy equipment and um class, or now our ag our ag education classes. Maybe there's a more specialty class that we offer that they're not able to offer at the local level, uh at the like New England or Beach. Or um, so we have students that come from all over there and over 1300 students. Last year we had 2600 class requests. Um, we're we're spanned here right on the north side of of Dickinson, and uh we cover three different buildings, um, and yeah, and a lot of different programs.

SPEAKER_00:

And I I know everybody's very impressed, and we're gonna kind of wrap this thing up here, but I I appreciate you being on and I appreciate you being in the Ag Field. Um, you know, you've always been a uh I'm a fan of yours uh all the way through. Sometimes that's not the right thing to say, but it is because you're very good and you're very aggressive, and you're very good at your job. So again, uh this is America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Jim Sabby with your host for this weekend. Colby, uh, thank you for being a part of it uh this week, and uh look forward to many good things that you've been doing. So we will be visiting with you guys later.

SPEAKER_01:

Thanks, Jim.