Speaker 1: Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast.
Speaker 1: In this show, the Texas FFA Foundation will take on a journey of exploration into agricultural science, education, leadership development and insights from subject matter experts and sponsors who provide the fuel to make dreams come true.
Speaker 1: Here's your host, Aaron Alejandro.
Speaker 2: Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening or whenever you may be tuning in to the Growing Our Future podcast.
Speaker 2: First, we want to start by saying thank you.
Speaker 2: You know, time's the only thing that we get to spend.
Speaker 2: We can't save it.
Speaker 2: And so the fact that you're spending a little bit of your time with us today, we want you to know how much we value that.
Speaker 2: We also value the time of our incredible guests.
Speaker 2: We have guests that are.
Speaker 2: They come onto this podcast and they're willing to share their time, their experiences, their insights, their expertise.
Speaker 2: They pour into others and, like we say in the world of agriculture, if you want to know what the future is, grow it.
Speaker 2: If you want to know what the future is, grow it.
Speaker 2: Well, to grow something, you got to plant the right seeds, and that's what this podcast is about.
Speaker 2: It's about bringing people on that give us some seeds that we can put in place in our lives and grow a beautiful life, a beautiful community and a beautiful future.
Speaker 2: Today's guest is no exception.
Speaker 2: Folks, y'all are about to meet a legend in the history of Texas ag, education and FFA, and it won't take you long to understand why he is, because he's such an incredible encourager and he's got a great, great background and we're going to talk about that background.
Speaker 2: But, ladies and gentlemen, it's an honor to welcome Dan Taylor to the show.
Speaker 2: Dan, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3: It's my pleasure and I look forward to it.
Speaker 2: So, dan, you know every one of these episodes we start off the same way, so you're going to get the same question everybody else gets, and that question is this Dan Taylor, what are you grateful for today?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm grateful for lots of things.
Speaker 3: One, to live in America, even though we have disarray in certain things, but America's still the greatest country in the world, without a doubt.
Speaker 3: I'm grateful to have been invited to agriculture.
Speaker 3: I'm grateful to my family.
Speaker 3: All of my kids and grandkids either have degrees or are working toward degrees in agriculture, and so it's been a great life in agriculture, and so it's been a great life in agriculture.
Speaker 3: Many things I'm grateful for in good health.
Speaker 2: Isn't that something when we start with that, Dan?
Speaker 2: I don't know, but people that are grateful, they tend to be more hopeful.
Speaker 2: People that are grateful seem to be more energetic.
Speaker 2: They look forward to things.
Speaker 2: People that don't seem to be more energetic they look forward to things.
Speaker 2: People that don't have a lot of gratefulness they don't always, they're not always positive, but when you start your day with a little gratefulness, I think it sets the tone of great things to happen that day.
Speaker 2: And we always start this podcast with gratefulness, because I think when we all start by reflecting on what we're appreciative of, it just kind of sets the tone of the dialogue that we're going to have.
Speaker 3: Yes, without a doubt it does.
Speaker 2: So Dan Taylor my goodness, dan Taylor's got a life journey here, folks, that we're about to share with y'all.
Speaker 2: And it goes back and he's going to start.
Speaker 2: Dan, I want you to start and tell us a little bit.
Speaker 2: You're a successful businessman.
Speaker 2: You've been a former agricultural science teacher.
Speaker 2: You are a philanthropist.
Speaker 2: I'm going to put another label on you You're a historian philanthropist.
Speaker 2: I'm going to put another label on you You're a historian.
Speaker 2: And what I'd like for you to do, dan, is walk us through if you will walk us through your life journey.
Speaker 2: How did you end up being the head of Buster's Gin and the president of the Ag Museum in Lubbock, texas?
Speaker 2: How in the world did this come about?
Speaker 2: Take us through your life's journey, if you will.
Speaker 3: Well, number one, you don't ever do it alone.
Speaker 3: And so many mentors, many people support, don't ever say I did this with you, we got it done through the efforts of so many.
Speaker 3: I was raised on a farm in small range in central Texas, hill County, a little town of Bloom which is south of Fort Worth about 40 miles.
Speaker 3: Because I grew up in agriculture, I was born in World War II so things were pretty primitive in that area.
Speaker 3: We started some slight advancement in the 50s.
Speaker 3: But in the 50s we were not really tolling in the fields.
Speaker 3: We had no ag chemicals.
Speaker 3: There was very little fertilization and very little mechanical harvesting methods.
Speaker 3: It was pretty primitive.
Speaker 3: We hand harvested our cotton until I was a sophomore in high school.
Speaker 3: But I learned work ethics.
Speaker 3: And your family.
Speaker 3: I was blessed with a good parents but at the time you think probably you've been mistreated because you worked all the time.
Speaker 3: But as life goes on you realize how what a real blessing that was to learn some integrity, honesty, work ethics.
Speaker 3: So sharpening up a little.
Speaker 3: I wasn't going to an agriculture college.
Speaker 3: I was going to determine I was real strong about two things I was not going to do, and that was farm or have anything to do with cotton.
Speaker 3: I really pushed that hard to cotton because that was nothing but hard times.
Speaker 3: I went to a non-agriculture college but during another year had grown up and I wasn't pleased with the university I was at.
Speaker 3: It was more liberal thinking than I was raised and that's before we really knew the word liberal hardly in the 1960s when I graduated.
Speaker 3: But by accident I followed a cousin to Texas Tech.
Speaker 3: I had to look on the map to know where Texas Tech was.
Speaker 3: It could have been in Europe as well as Texas as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 3: I followed him out here with a transcript in my hand, without a place to live.
Speaker 3: He was a year younger than me.
Speaker 3: He was on the engineering scholarship.
Speaker 3: We arrived in Lubbock I registered, slept on his dorm floor a few days and I found the house out on the farm and from then on I really got enrolled in Texas Tech, got more excited.
Speaker 3: More of my real passion was in agriculture Not during the time I was going to teach, but I wanted to be in some agricultural field.
Speaker 3: And from day one there's mentors, people that helped me, the people I lived on their farm Archland this was great Texan way back in some of the early beginning of it and they ended up nearly like parents do, real reluctant to rent an old house in front of their house on the farm to two college boys.
Speaker 3: I didn't realize at the time what their fear was, but anyway, after they got to know me, I lived there and developed relationships, worked for farmers across the road and got more and more involved in agriculture.
Speaker 3: I obtained my major in ag education and I had two of the best professors.
Speaker 3: There was TL Leach and LM Hardraves.
Speaker 3: If anybody didn't steal the importance of agriculture education, it couldn't be instilled in someone.
Speaker 3: They were gross.
Speaker 3: Did my student teach in agriculture Not instilled even more of my desire to want to teach.
Speaker 3: Up until then I wasn't sure.
Speaker 3: But in serving in the block under Mr Leach and Hargrave didn't student teach it.
Speaker 3: So, luckily, the grace of God again, and half the people, my wife.
Speaker 3: We got married a year of college for her, so I had to stay located close to Lubbock.
Speaker 3: This is 1964, and you still wasn't real mobile then as much as today.
Speaker 3: I took a job at Lubbock as much as today Feed limit, for 55 hours a day.
Speaker 3: I took a job at Lubbock Cooper.
Speaker 3: That came open late in the summer.
Speaker 3: I graduated in August and we lived on campus.
Speaker 3: I was 50 yards from the Ag building for 11 years.
Speaker 3: Really All my kids were barred while I lived at Cooper.
Speaker 3: It was a great place.
Speaker 3: I had great administration and our program just kept advancing.
Speaker 3: After about six years we added a second teacher, an ag mechanics, farm-powered machine at the time and I was very blessed and still is our one farm.
Speaker 3: By then we had mechanized cotton harvesting, we had Treff Land came out in the 60s we had weed.
Speaker 3: So I developed a six acre farm on the school campus and we irrigated from a well, shared it with the football field.
Speaker 3: We started on time.
Speaker 3: We planted different varieties kind of researched wealth, shared it with the football field.
Speaker 3: We started on-time.
Speaker 3: We planted different varieties of research and I rented 10 acres of my home in my fourth year, which is well inside Lubbock today, and when I talked about the 10 acres a lot of people thought I had 1,000.
Speaker 3: Well, I talked about it.
Speaker 3: I have the tractor I started on that Restored in my barn.
Speaker 3: It's 53 Super M Farmall.
Speaker 3: I bought it in 66.
Speaker 3: But that kind of developed my desire, got interested and got approached about buying a cotton gin that was about to close, a gin, just barely enough to have the doors open a year before.
Speaker 3: I didn't want to leave teaching, but I guess, as your kids get three of them, I thought I might spend more time with them and had a desire to take the next step in agriculture.
Speaker 3: To this day, this is many years later.
Speaker 3: That's the hardest decision I've ever made in my life today.
Speaker 3: I quit teaching.
Speaker 3: I know you hear a lot say I quit on kind of money.
Speaker 3: I didn't quit on kind of money.
Speaker 3: I think I was treated very good salary-wise but it was the hardest decision I ever made.
Speaker 3: I went to see the superintendent, the president of the board on a Sunday to tell them I ever made.
Speaker 3: I went to see the superintendent, the president of the board on a Sunday to tell them I was leaving.
Speaker 3: That was a lot of tears by us Sid.
Speaker 3: I don't know whether it's tears the community shed.
Speaker 3: But we moved to a farm near Rocheville that we purchased which is four miles from the cotton gin and I told people that my time at the gin a lot of that's kind of track my time in education.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of parallels to your customer service and PR and I give my dearest credit in May my being successful in business and we took Buster's Inn to one of the largest in Texas.
Speaker 3: It was the largest family home.
Speaker 3: We were surrounded by Co-Op's Inn to the one of the largest in Texas.
Speaker 3: It was the largest family home.
Speaker 3: We were surrounded by Co-Op's Inn which were owned by the members but I outperformed most of them in production.
Speaker 3: The den was a lot of my farmer students were customers and but it was a real blessing.
Speaker 3: But that early you don't do none of this by yourself.
Speaker 3: I had a lot of mentors.
Speaker 3: A lot of mentors probably didn't know this.
Speaker 3: I had my mentor.
Speaker 3: They bothered me in life, same way teaching is a naysayers.
Speaker 3: The world is full of many naysayers instead of the positive people and I had them even teach and you can't have that kind of problem.
Speaker 3: But you can.
Speaker 3: I think a good teacher can go to any school regardless how weak a problem they've had before, and they'll develop that problem and in two years they'll have an outstanding problem and it's in the same way.
Speaker 3: But I had a lot of nice series that probably helps me.
Speaker 3: I'm one of these that not good tell me I can't do this and that probably motivated me At the time.
Speaker 3: It hurt my feelings.
Speaker 3: Sure, I've been in cotton gins.
Speaker 3: You can't financially make it a success so it probably works harder.
Speaker 3: So paint's not a word in my vocabulary.
Speaker 3: I really appreciate and I've tried in my life to be very positive towards others.
Speaker 3: Same thing we've been saying in the 60's been said today there's no way you start farming on your own without family help or something.
Speaker 3: My wife and I not from there.
Speaker 3: We had zero family help.
Speaker 3: We started.
Speaker 3: But you don't start the same level as somebody across the road.
Speaker 3: You've got a big perseverance road map.
Speaker 3: You've got to be in perseverance.
Speaker 3: In the same way in teaching you've got to have that perseverance, that desire to want to.
Speaker 3: You take it step by step.
Speaker 3: I still say a person can start the day, and even in this environment, on their own, little by little.
Speaker 3: You may have to work off-site and farm on the side, but there's opportunities out there.
Speaker 3: Ag education program is such a good program that helps establish some basis for individuals in so many different, varied fields of agriculture and leadership in things that they may do in life that's not directly related to agriculture, but I've been blessed with so many people that were positive.
Speaker 3: One on the naysayer side and talking about the naysayer, you mentioned the museum a while ago.
Speaker 3: I've been blessed to be involved with it, which really filled a gap after my selling of the cotton gin.
Speaker 3: I've got to have a goal every day, something to do, but it's full of naysayers.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's no way y'all can build this facility, get the money to do it.
Speaker 3: I heard that a bunch.
Speaker 2: Really.
Speaker 3: Oh, yes, yes.
Speaker 2: Those of us that know it.
Speaker 2: Now, I can't believe that, because it's so important I have support members that know it now I can't believe that because it's so important.
Speaker 3: I had support members that said it.
Speaker 3: Wow, perseverance and people with desire, team effort is a positive thing.
Speaker 3: It wasn't the nature of it, it wouldn't have been done, but that covered some of my life in a short version well, there's more there, dan, and we're gonna we're gonna talk about a little bit more of the details here.
Speaker 2: One of my favorite photos from my ffa experience, dan, because it changed my life.
Speaker 2: But growing up at boys which I understand you had a guy by the name of Bill Sarpolis.
Speaker 2: That student taught under you.
Speaker 3: That is correct, and so.
Speaker 2: Bill Sarpolis student taught under Dan Taylor, and many of you know that Bill went on to become a Texas senator and a US congressman and then helped the country of Lithuania become a free country.
Speaker 2: But it's because of Dan Taylor.
Speaker 2: Dan started all that.
Speaker 2: So, Dan, you had an impact on the world.
Speaker 2: You just didn't know it.
Speaker 3: You mentioned, Bill, and I think I had 21 student teachers under my time 11 years teaching and a lot of that was due to convenience Cooper School was only 12 miles from the campus of Texas Tech but I had some.
Speaker 3: These student teachers were more than just trainees under me.
Speaker 3: I've learned from them and their enthusiasm, their ideas and I got a lot out of it and my friend and most of them had contact ever since.
Speaker 3: Some of them are even deceased now and some are honored with the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: Last year that student taught under me, Danny Beck and David Howell were honored last year.
Speaker 2: You were talking, though I was going to tell you that.
Speaker 2: You know, one of my favorite photographs from my ffa experience I have was when I was at the state fair of texas.
Speaker 2: And at state fair of texas we I was a pig showman, so I showed pigs and the hog farm or the swine barn, the superintendent's office they always put boys ranch.
Speaker 2: We were always right in front of the superintendent's office.
Speaker 3: I remember.
Speaker 2: And LM Hargrave was the superintendent.
Speaker 2: One of my favorite photos, dan, is I've got a picture of me wearing a as a freshman.
Speaker 2: I'm wearing a yellow t-shirt with a picture of my mom on it, I'm standing with my ag teacher and LM Hargrave.
Speaker 2: The reason that's such an amazing picture for me is because later in my FFA career, when I went to Texas Tech University, dr Bill Bennett gave me, helped me, get a scholarship, and that scholarship was the LM Hargrave Scholarship.
Speaker 2: And that ag teacher that's in that picture with me is now the president of Vernon College, and so it's a real special picture for me because of LM and everybody that knew ag education knew LM Hargrave and TL Leach, and everybody that understands cultivation and the importance of scholarships knows what Bill Bennett did for Texas Tech University.
Speaker 2: And you know, when I think back, dan, of what you do today and what I've tried to do, those men were great examples to us of stewardship.
Speaker 2: Men were great examples to us of stewardship, of making sure that we do something to make it better for the people that follow in our footsteps.
Speaker 3: That's correct.
Speaker 3: Fortunately, linda and I, after our kids got educated, they were fortunate.
Speaker 3: It cost me a very minimal amount, next to none, because I get to own so many FFA and 4-H scholarships with all the nice support of Texas.
Speaker 3: But Bill Bennett got Lindenite College towards Thanksgiving and I had several lunches with him trying to get us involved in starting an endowment at Texas Tech for the college ag.
Speaker 3: He was such an influence on our life and I think what we're doing today is a result of what Bill Bennett got us started.
Speaker 2: And you know it's behind the scenes, dan.
Speaker 2: It's so many people like you, by the way, I hope that people see this podcast.
Speaker 2: You know there's an old saying that says you don't have to be loud to be heard.
Speaker 2: You don't have to be loud to be heard, you don't have to be loud to be heard.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to tell you, when you look at the legacy of Bill Bennett and you think about all the people that he mentored, you know, you, you talk about his relationship with you.
Speaker 2: Gordon Davis yes, gordon Davis is another one that was mentored by Bill Bennett.
Speaker 2: You know so many of these folks and then I was blessed to know them as well, and I've got to say honestly that Bill Bennett is probably one of the people that helped change my life.
Speaker 2: I think my mom sending me to Boys Ranch, the fact that Mr Chandler put me in FFA and the fact that a kid that didn't think he could go to college, didn't think he ever had a chance to go to school.
Speaker 2: Bill Bennett made that possible.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: So anyway.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you because I just want you to know that people like you empower people like me that don't even see it coming.
Speaker 2: We don't always know the behind the scenes of who makes those opportunities possible, but you know that's what you and Linda are doing through this generosity and the success that you've had, that you're willing to share that with others yeah, and we're blessed to be in our time of our life where we can afford to do things older.
Speaker 3: We need to give back.
Speaker 2: I think back how many supported our own kids and grandkids and dan, let's talk about something here real quick, because I know there's people listening to this podcast and they heard the word cotton gins.
Speaker 2: They heard cotton gin.
Speaker 2: What is a cotton gin?
Speaker 2: So I want to take a moment here and I know I know you know what one is, but there could be people listening to this that if they're not, if they're listening, they're not really paying attention.
Speaker 2: They might've missed something.
Speaker 2: So Dan Taylor talked about purchasing a cotton gin that was on the verge of closing.
Speaker 2: Okay, dan Taylor told you that he sold a cotton gin that was on the verge of closing.
Speaker 2: Dan Taylor told you that he sold a cotton gin where he and his wife were the largest independent cotton ginners in the state of Texas, and if you're not familiar with the state of Texas, it's a big state.
Speaker 2: So that's a big statement to say it's the largest independent cotton gin in the state of Texas.
Speaker 2: Dan, for our listeners and folks that are tuning in, give them a brief overview of what is a cotton gin in the state of Texas.
Speaker 2: Dan, for our listeners and folks that are tuning in, give them a brief overview of what is a cotton gin.
Speaker 3: Well, if you go back in history, eli Whitney invented a cotton gin in 1793.
Speaker 3: All the cotton gin basically was invented for separating the fiber, or lint we call it, from the cotton seed.
Speaker 3: The lint drove off the seed.
Speaker 3: Or it says modernization, harvesting everything.
Speaker 3: There's more separation to do than just the lint.
Speaker 3: We harvest it.
Speaker 3: The cotton was on the plant so you did a lot of foreign matter harvesting with it.
Speaker 3: So there's about 15 something machines and again 15 to 20 different machines from heaters to dryers separating.
Speaker 3: So all of this goes to a large mass of equipment.
Speaker 3: Today to build a new cotton gin would be the 20 plus million, 25 probably closer.
Speaker 3: All of this is going through a cotton gin.
Speaker 3: Separating all this in a minute's time.
Speaker 3: It's from start to finish it's a minute.
Speaker 3: But the end product is mainly the lint and the cotton seed and the foreign matter is used for cattle feed.
Speaker 3: A lot less for value.
Speaker 3: So a lot entailed.
Speaker 3: Of course I've got very modern and euterized now.
Speaker 3: It's still a very complex industry.
Speaker 3: It don't flow like a regular manufacturing plant that's got a constant product and a constant temperature, constant quality.
Speaker 3: Our quality varies from farm to farm.
Speaker 3: So running a cotton gin is very entailed.
Speaker 3: Most of the gin now operated.
Speaker 3: When I started it was more people that were laborers, that were moved up to be managers, but now it's very educated individuals.
Speaker 3: College education.
Speaker 3: You really need an engineering degree, an electrical degree all at the same time.
Speaker 3: There's so much.
Speaker 3: Our gen was approximately 4,000 horsepower.
Speaker 3: You got a lot of components.
Speaker 3: Education was so important.
Speaker 3: Our proximity to love.
Speaker 3: We had so many chamber of commerce groups, tour groups walking to our cottage in from other states and local, so we built an education room 16 foot up.
Speaker 3: A picture of one that was looking every direction.
Speaker 3: They could see every piece of machinery.
Speaker 3: They could see the trucks bringing it in.
Speaker 3: They could see 50 people dinners, studying, had TV monitor.
Speaker 3: So we did a lot of educational programs.
Speaker 3: Field of Finnish Bale was a video we produced.
Speaker 3: It took you from the harvest all the way through every step.
Speaker 3: We gave away I lost count well over 5,000 copies of that to teachers, mainly as the word spread.
Speaker 3: So we've incorporated education with the Cotton's and we continue to do so.
Speaker 3: We had a lot of educational meetings there as well as tour groups.
Speaker 3: So when I sold the den I lived three months in it, so we've kind of incorporated it.
Speaker 3: Now back to my barn.
Speaker 3: We're doing a lot of leadership group, texas Tech Ag groups, do some political groups here, ones that I'm really involved with.
Speaker 3: We've had fundraisers for them.
Speaker 3: So we do it here at my barn.
Speaker 3: We still do a lot of these groups and still tour them at the cotton shed, but we have a function at my barn.
Speaker 3: We still do a lot of these groups and still turn them into cotton, but we have a function at my barn and take them to the tent.
Speaker 2: So education remains a important part of our life so for everybody listening, because, dan, this goes all over the united states, all over texas, even around the world.
Speaker 2: If you ever find yourself on the south, if you ever find yourself on the South Plains and you ever find yourself in Lubbock, texas, you can drive a little bit out of town just toward a little town called Ropesville and you will see a big lighted up, a big red barn that's got a big double T that lights up at night.
Speaker 2: And if you can make your way out to that barn you're going to find a lot of history.
Speaker 2: Dan, how many tractors, how many tractors do you have on premise there now?
Speaker 3: well, I can't tell all of that because your wife's always wanting to know how many and you put them in different barns so you can't get a true count.
Speaker 2: I got approximately 20 yeah, the reason I shared that again is dan taylor's attention to history and willingness to share history is not just at the museum in lubbock but on their farm.
Speaker 2: They have an incredible display of the history, of not only their farm but of cotton jenny, and they've got equipment and they've got a barn that they can host events in.
Speaker 2: And you know it's always one of our favorite stops when we take our lead teachers through West Texas is to go to Dan Taylor's barn and to spend time at the museum and walking around looking at the tractors and then there's cotton fields right there, right next to everything.
Speaker 2: They get to see the actual fields.
Speaker 2: And so when we talk about history here, not only is Dan Taylor sharing history, he's living history, but he's sharing history Physically.
Speaker 2: He's sharing the story of cotton ginning, and so if you ever find your way to Dan's farm, y'all will understand just how impressive his storytelling really is Well.
Speaker 3: Thank you, we hope and Linda and I have talked a lot you spend such a busy time in your life, your business, trying to be a success in your kids.
Speaker 3: You probably don't do enough for others, given your time and talents and resources, and we've really tried to devote ourselves.
Speaker 3: In later years.
Speaker 3: Most of our day is spent in some way giving back, hopefully to others in the museum or in education or something.
Speaker 2: Dan, we're going to talk about a couple more things here and we're going to come back to what you just shared let's talk about real quick, because I want people to know a little bit more about the museum, because you've had so many incredible guests that have visited that museum there in Lubbock Texas and it's called the Discovery Center now and it is impressive, but it is a museum of agricultural history and, if anybody's listening to this, if you're ever looking for a destination field trip, I would encourage you to look at coming to the Ag Museum in Lubbock Texas.
Speaker 2: It is a destination field trip and, dan, you've got so many things in there.
Speaker 2: You've got an airplane in the ceiling when you come in, you've got silos, you've got a cotton stripper, you've got an entertainment room, you've got a museum, you've got stuffed animals, taxidermied animals.
Speaker 2: You've got everything in this thing.
Speaker 2: Tell us a little bit about the museum and why it's important.
Speaker 3: Well, we're trying to preserve the history and heritage of agriculture and teach the next generation where their food and fiber comes from.
Speaker 3: Now back up a little bit Alden Brazel, which was a National FFA officer in 1947-48.
Speaker 3: He was a county commissioner, raised on a farm and 36 years he was county commissioner and he got real interested as he saw what revolution changed in agriculture and our equipment went advancing a lot, particularly starting in about late 50s.
Speaker 3: So he went to he said if we don't preserve, collect some of this, it's going on to the scrapyard.
Speaker 3: So he got involved early on.
Speaker 3: The county allowed him to use the county truck with no county funds and nearly everything was given to him.
Speaker 3: He started a mass collection of tractors and equipment and as time moved on he started a mass collection of tractors and equipment in the 60s and as time moved on he really pushed for trying to get a museum structure.
Speaker 3: Farmer Mayor Lovett was a farm boy and lawyer and he's the first president.
Speaker 3: We started a charter about 23 years ago I think, and he served president three years and I've had it 18 years.
Speaker 3: But we started with a plan and a vision, a three-phase vision plan, what we needed to do.
Speaker 3: It took years to get it.
Speaker 3: Finally, the only thing we got out of the city.
Speaker 3: The city loaned us 24 acres for 99 years.
Speaker 3: We started, we built phase one in 2011, phase two in 2014, and phase three has been built as we talk.
Speaker 3: Phase one is more the collection of history and heritage of agriculture, got a lot of interactive exhibits.
Speaker 3: Phase two is more upper level, science-based Got the airplane in there that was a spray plane.
Speaker 3: Got the late model cotton stripper they can do the simulation for three minutes driving it and we have a fabulous meeting room.
Speaker 3: These are built like grain tanks to represent agriculture and we have about 120 rental events a year in that area.
Speaker 3: But that's health, promote agriculture.
Speaker 3: And our third phase is the most expensive.
Speaker 3: We're going to have approximately $15 million in buildings and exhibits.
Speaker 3: That'll be more than that count in exhibits.
Speaker 3: We're doing $15 to $20 million in buildings and exhibits when we finish that phase.
Speaker 3: This phase around now is costing a little over $6 million.
Speaker 3: It's going to focus on that kind of third, fourth, fifth grade level.
Speaker 3: We're going to really inspire more teachers to come field trip and we have about 20-something interactive exhibits and these have been developed in Chicago.
Speaker 3: We got our first shipment last week.
Speaker 3: Then we got a cotton heritage center in there and we've hired a company in Indiana to help sign that.
Speaker 3: My collection is going to level and Lynn and I are funding that part of the museum, the cotton heritage center.
Speaker 3: But it's going to be a facility to catch all of them and this phase is really going to put us in a new level.
Speaker 3: We started with this three-phase plan a long time ago.
Speaker 3: I never heard so many people that can't be done, can't ever do.
Speaker 3: It had some get off the board not going to be part of that, but personally, if we've got a good team we've got 19 on the board and most of them have some background.
Speaker 3: We've got bankers on the board, we've got business people on the board and got some retired farmers.
Speaker 3: We've got a great team and we've been able to get to where.
Speaker 3: It's a team effort getting where we are.
Speaker 3: Our first director was a lady that out of Kansas got a master's degree.
Speaker 3: We didn't go after somebody that knew how to run a museum.
Speaker 3: Number one we couldn't afford those people.
Speaker 3: Number two I felt like as imparted and personally the board gave me the power pretty well to seek who's the next director.
Speaker 3: We've only had two directors in a year.
Speaker 3: Lacey this phrase.
Speaker 3: We hired her.
Speaker 3: Lacey Holden now is on her 16th year.
Speaker 3: She was a very outstanding FFA student at Cooper State, ffa officer first vice president, got her degree in tech, a master's in A&M, did internships at Ag Worker, houston, the talk show Anyway.
Speaker 3: When we had an opening for that I told the board I had somebody in mind what she knows about running a museum nothing.
Speaker 3: What Dan Taylor knows about running a museum nothing.
Speaker 3: But we learned together in the first appearance and she's been a blessing to have.
Speaker 3: Lacey has such many communicative skills and connect to people.
Speaker 3: So her and I both give that credit back to FFA and the leadership she learned and had and been a great team.
Speaker 3: Marty Berkeback is our communication marketing director.
Speaker 3: She's got an ag comm degree.
Speaker 3: So agriculture, education and the FFA program in NASCO has played such a big role in the success of this museum.
Speaker 3: The current name today is FiberMax Center for Discovery.
Speaker 3: We took the word museum out.
Speaker 3: Some think the museum is nothing but artifacts to look at.
Speaker 3: We're a center of discovery.
Speaker 3: It's interactive.
Speaker 2: That's the reason why I'm telling people, if you ever get a chance to go see this place, you got to go see it because it's interactive.
Speaker 2: It's water, it's vegetation, it's livestock, it's everything, and it's interactive.
Speaker 2: That's what I like about it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll actually just do a small example of the exhibits and next we'll have a supermarket, a grocery store, wow, and they pick up an orange or something, a computer monitor, and tell them something about the guy that grew.
Speaker 3: That it's educational, it's entertaining as well.
Speaker 2: Dan, that's the reason why I wanted to have you on this show, because I'm telling you, you're like an encyclopedia of Britannica, of ag, ed, FFA, agricultural history, and I just appreciate you sharing all this with us.
Speaker 2: So we've learned a lot about you.
Speaker 2: We've learned a lot about your journey through ag education, FFA business.
Speaker 2: We've learned about your taking on this role of leadership and helping craft the vision for a museum which now has become a discovery center.
Speaker 2: One last quick topic here, and we're not going to dwell on this one very long, but I just want to say thank you, because Dan Taylor is one of the original founders of the Texas FFA Foundation.
Speaker 2: Dan was one of the early folks that got involved with this organization back in the late 80s and, Dan, just like what you've witnessed with the museum, what you've witnessed through FFA, you have also witnessed and been a part of the growth of the Texas FFA Foundation and you need to take a little credit for that.
Speaker 2: Dan, I know how you are.
Speaker 2: You're going to say, well, I didn't do anything, but I'm going to tell the world right now.
Speaker 2: This man has done a lot to support the Texas FFA Foundation.
Speaker 2: Dan, I just want to tell you how much we appreciate you, we value you and when we look at the success of the Texas FFA Foundation and you said it, nobody does it alone, Nobody.
Speaker 2: And I'm telling you, as the executive director for 24 years, Dan, I can tell you there are a lot of times where I was discouraged.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of times where I wondered if I was in the right place.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of times where I wondered if I was in the right place.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of times those naysayers as much as you try to drown them out, they can sometimes slip a comment in and get it in your ear.
Speaker 2: But I'm going to tell you it's the words of encouragement of a man like Dan Taylor that'll keep you going.
Speaker 2: And, Dan, if anybody has benefited from any of the programs, any of the services, any of the outreach of the Texas FFA Foundation, you deserve a thank you for being a part of that and I just want to get that on the record of how much we value what you've done for us.
Speaker 3: Well, you're very kind and I share some of the sentiments you did.
Speaker 3: I've discouraged a few times, several times, and look like we might not succeed in getting the belt in the foundation, but the things I mentioned earlier, the perseverance and the team members that they're pushing forward and a little bit about as I was bragging on with Lacey, while you were our director and our background in agriculture.
Speaker 3: You're a good example here to help carry forward this foundation and your training in agriculture and ag science and FFA has been set to positive in the leadership of the foundation and the reason it's successful.
Speaker 3: You're carrying it forward and thank you for your leadership.
Speaker 2: I want you to know that I'm humbled by your compliment and I'm telling you I tell people all the time and you know what I mean, dan when we think about our friends like J?
Speaker 2: Udy and Guy Femstead.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: We stand on the shoulders of the people that went before us and I'm proud, and I know you are too.
Speaker 2: I want people to be proud of what we've accomplished.
Speaker 2: I want us to stand a little taller, but I think with that comes the challenge to everybody that's listening your job is to stand it even taller.
Speaker 2: Your job is to make it even better, to make more opportunities, to create more acknowledgement of our history.
Speaker 2: But, dan, we are in a good place because of who you and Linda are, and I don't know for those that know, I don't know if what's ever going to happen to their farm when they're done, but whatever we do, we need to go out there and we need to soil sample it, we need to water test it Because, dan and Linda Taylor, every time I talk to them they seem to get younger and younger and younger, and so whatever they're doing out there, it's working.
Speaker 3: Awesome, thank you.
Speaker 2: Dan, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2: I always like to wrap up the podcast with kind of a fun question, so I'm going to ask you a fun question Um, what's the best concert you've ever been to?
Speaker 3: Oh, that'd have to be George George Strait.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he's a farmer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to say how can you go wrong with King George?
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, that's great.
Speaker 2: Dan, thank you for coming on the podcast, but more importantly, thank you for what you've done for agriculture and ffa and ag education, the state of texas zig and tom ziggler talk about.
Speaker 2: We are all going to leave a legacy.
Speaker 2: We're all going to leave a legacy.
Speaker 2: It will either be by default or design.
Speaker 2: This man right here has left a legacy by design and I hope that today you were able to capture some of those seeds of greatness that made him a success, made his organizations a success and can make your life and your community and your organization, even your business, a success.
Speaker 2: Dan, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3: Thank you, have a good day.
Speaker 2: For all of you that joined us today.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for stopping by.
Speaker 2: Remember, if you want to know what the future is, grow it, start planting seeds of greatness, take care of them and then harvest it, and then, when you harvest it, share it with somebody else.
Speaker 2: Until our paths cross again, go out and do something great for somebody.
Speaker 2: You'll feel good about it.
Speaker 2: Our homes, our community, our state and country will be better because of it.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us, and country will be better because of it.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast.
Speaker 1: This show is sponsored by the Texas FFA Foundation, whose mission is to strengthen agricultural science education so students can develop their potential for personal growth, career success and leadership in a global marketplace.
Speaker 1: Learn more at mytexasffaorg.