Dirt to Dollars
Agriculture, farming, and rural issues in central Kentucky.
Dirt to Dollars
Episode 36 - Misty Bivens - LaRue County Ag Teacher and FFA advisor
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Our Premier Crop Insurance Ag interview this week is Misty Bivens, one of the agriculture teachers at LaRue County High School.
Thanks to Southern States Hardin Co-op for sponsoring this week's show! Go visit them at their Hodgenville and Elizabethtown locations.
Thanks also to our studio sponsor Biotech Innovations. Learn more about them at www.biotechinnovationsag.com.
Welcome to Dirt to Dollars, where we cover everything from the dirt on your land to the dollars in your hand.
SPEAKER_00We're talking all things agriculture in central Kentucky, from the field to the farm office.
SPEAKER_01Join your hosts, Daniel Carpenter, Matt Adams, and Mark Thomas as we dig into current ag news, practices, and more. And now, coming to you from the Biotech Innovation Studios, here's Dirt to Dollars. Now let's get innovative. Welcome back to Dirt to Dollars, another week, and we're still here. They didn't cut the mics off or nothing. Had a lot of comments on last week's show. Yeah. We got a few takes.
SPEAKER_03We promise you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm gonna promise you it's gonna be rant-free this week from Daniel, anyways. No rants. No, no rants. But uh we've had some suggestions of maybe y'all remember the show Celebrity Deathmatch? Was that on like MTV or something like that? Yeah. That uh a certain Dirt the Dollars co-host and a certain past outdoor show co-host from Kentucky Educational Television maybe could have a matchup on on that. But too old for fights like that.
SPEAKER_02I'm just gonna keep my comments to myself.
SPEAKER_00It's too old for fights like that. Maybe they could just uh just play checkers or something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know what? Who's our who's our sponsor this week? Come on. Not Kentucky Educational Television. Our friends over Southern States, Harden Co-op with locations in uh Harden and LaRue County, Elizabeth Town and Hodginville. Those guys have finally got a break here with some of the weather and gearing back up to get to get you the rest of your spring needs for the season. That was the weakest nail I've ever heard of.
SPEAKER_01I didn't have it close enough to the mic. Hang on, let me try again. There you go.
SPEAKER_00That was that was more acceptable.
SPEAKER_01Sorry. It wasn't a real good comment either. I was my bell game's off this week.
SPEAKER_00Jonathan Francis do better.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Well, you know who doesn't need encouragement to do better? We have a guest. Yes, a good one. A really good one. And they're actually gonna be our premier crop insurance ag interview of the week. So Daniel, do you want to go on and bring them in?
SPEAKER_02Alright, so in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, we got we have to be careful how we say this. We've got, I want to say the goat ag teacher, but I don't think you could say the goat ag teacher. I think you have to say the greatest of all time. Like there could be some miscommunications when you say goat. Yeah, like so, but we'll say that. Probably. I do. But uh one of the one of the greatest ag teachers around, uh Misty Bivens uh from LaRue County High School. Misty, thanks for joining us. Oh, thanks for having me. Why don't you uh tell our listeners a little about yourself, um, a little about your your background?
SPEAKER_05So I grew up in Garrett County on a beef, cattle, and tobacco farm. In fact, uh some of my earliest memories were following the tobacco setter because I thought that's what everybody did in the summer. And uh my birthday's in June, so I rarely got a birthday cake because we were setting tobacco, so I just thought everybody got cookies instead of cakes. Uh, and then I went to UK. Well, I started at Center College and quickly realized that um center was a lovely school, but it was not the school for me. And so then I transferred to UK and uh majored in Ag ed and in fact tried to change my major from Ag ed late in my journey at UK, and Dr. Byers, who is my advisor, said no, I could not change my major. So I uh student taught and uh then was a grad assistant for a year, and then I started dating someone that did not want to stay at college forever and decided maybe I needed to get a job and got the job at LaRue County, and my then boyfriend, now husband for a long time, uh, started farming in LaRue County where I got the job teaching. And so I tell everybody that I was a catch, so he followed me. And I've been teaching at LaRue County High School since uh 2001. Probably I started teaching not uh not too long after you boys were born. And I have been in the exact same classroom the whole time, the whole time in my teaching career.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for the compliment, but I think we were all I was we had several years under us by the time you started.
SPEAKER_00I uh I was a freshman in high school. I was starting my freshman year of high school when you started teaching.
SPEAKER_02So I've kind of been sophomore or junior somewhere around there. Eighth grade.
SPEAKER_04So what what you were still young?
SPEAKER_02That's true. What uh what were you thinking about changing your major to?
SPEAKER_05So I thought about changing to um ag econ. I thought about changing my major to uh ag engineering. In fact, at the end of my uh when I was a grant assistant, uh some of the professors in ag engineering tried to hire me to run like a grant that they had gotten because uh I'd been at a couple of their classes and they were like, oh, you're on top of it. We need you to do this. But instead I left UK and got a got a real job teaching ag.
SPEAKER_01So what I guess what uh what led you into ag ed to begin with, even though you tried to change your mind and you were going to go away from it, but what kind of drew you to that and what led you down that path?
SPEAKER_05Well, I I probably was a little unstable, I guess, about my major, only because in high school I had three different ag teachers over the course of my high school career. So they everybody told me that I kept running them off, but I don't think it was me. I think the first one became a principal. Uh, the second one got an opportunity to go back home, and the third one was a really nice person, but maybe not a great teacher. And he and then he left as well. Uh, I told this story not long ago. I I was a state FFA officer, and that's probably what really led me to being an ag teacher. But at state convention, when we were there, the ag teacher I had at the time said, you know, if we stay to hear the announcement of state officers, it's gonna get it's gonna put us getting home kind of late. So we're probably not gonna stay. As soon as the kids get the state degrees, we're just gonna leave. And they did. So I told that story to somebody the other day that actually knew that person, and they said, That sounds about like him. They go, I can't imagine doing that to get my student. They were like, but that but actually the ag teacher I'd had is a junior in high school who actually was Ryan's ag teacher in high school, uh, because he left he was from Spencer County and left Garrett and went to Spencer. Uh, he told me that he didn't know if he was gonna stay, but my mom said that he did stay until they announced my name and then he left because uh he I think felt a little guilty that he abandoned me because I kept losing ag teachers. But being a state FFA officer, I got to interact with so many good ag teachers across the state that that was just something that I saw the impact they made on students, and I I felt like that was something that I wanted to do. Having grown up on a farm, I didn't know that I wanted to be a farmer full-time, but I wanted to influence those ag students.
SPEAKER_01So uh talking about going to LaRue County, uh, you really didn't have any ties to LaRue County, right? None. So was that just was that somewhere that you saw that school growing up and wanted to have it in mind you might want to be there if the opportunity popped up, or was that just the first job that came available? And I guess did you uh did you see yourself when you started being there for 25 years?
SPEAKER_05So at the time I graduated from college, there weren't a ton of ag teaching jobs. So if you found one and they were willing to hire you, that was where you wanted to teach. So I mean, I I as having been a state officer, like I kind of knew about LaRue County, but I didn't really know about LaRue County. It was like, oh, well, it's not in the city, and I don't really want to live in a city, so this will be okay. And it was two hours from Garrion County instead of I guess four hours I could have been from it in places. So it was like, oh, okay, this won't be too bad. But I I don't know that when I started teaching initially, that I thought I would still be in the same classroom 25 years later. But early in my career, uh Dr. Byers, that was my advisor, called me and tried to get me to take the job at Anderson County because he said then he could send me student teachers. And I was like, I'm not leaving to move somewhere. Because by that time I was married and Ryan was farming, and so after that, it was no, we were very invested in the community. But um, no, I didn't know anything about LaRue County when I moved here. I just got a job and was like, woo-hoo, they hired me. Uh, but there was a I I was the president of the Ag Teacher Association a few years ago, and I I got access to some data as that. And it was real interesting at that time the group of ag teachers I was in in terms of years of experience, which at that time was probably between like 15 and 20. Most most of the time those numbers started out real high when you're like one to five years of experience. And then as people are in the profession, they'll go into administration or they'll go into other jobs. But that group, because jobs were so hard to find, the numbers went down, down, down until you got to that one, and then it went back up again, and then it went down, down, down substantially. So I think that group of people was just so excited to get a job. They did not move, they did not get other jobs, so they were like, Thank you, I got a job.
SPEAKER_00Now, when you were hired at LaRue County, was were they adding a second ag teacher, or had they always had two and somebody had retired or moved?
SPEAKER_05Or no, they had I think they'd always had two there. Uh I replaced Mason Crawford uh when I took the job. Yeah, John.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_05John Harden opens, he went there, and so he created an opening for me so I could find a job.
SPEAKER_00Hey, that's right. It sounds like your other option would have been John Harden, maybe.
SPEAKER_05So well, I mean a brand new teacher at that, but uh well, in fact, when I when I interviewed for the job, the principal at the time told me, he goes, Well, I mean, you can interview, but we've had some people with experience that have inquired about the job, so I don't know if you'll get the job or not. So I was like, okay.
SPEAKER_01Look at you now. Yeah. I was like, hey, I still got my job. So um, you've been been doing this for 25 years, and of course, what the last three or four you've been able to have your own kids in the classroom. How has that been different? Have you enjoyed that? Have they enjoyed that, do you think? Or uh has that been something that you were looking forward to going into it, or how has that been?
SPEAKER_05I that's something I've been looking forward to as long as I've had my own children, because I've taken everybody else's children's places, so now I get to take my own children's places. Uh however, they have to earn it just like everybody else. So when Cyrus was a freshman and we were going to national convention, Ryan's like, well, Cyrus is going at me, and I said, No, he didn't earn the right to go. And then there was kind of a pause. But uh I mean, for Cyrus, that just made him work harder to do better and and to really earn it. Avery, however, got to go as a freshman just for the day because Cyrus was a proficiency finalist. So uh Cyrus informed him that he was very fortunate because mom didn't take kids that didn't earn it. But but I mean it it's been a it's been a challenge at times because I mean my two children are very, very different. Cyrus is a go-getter. If you can, if you can win it, if you can do it, if you can have that opportunity, he wants all of them. Avery, however, I mean, if it's there and he could do it, that's cool. But if not, you know, it's cool. And uh so I mean at times Cyrus makes my life difficult because I'm sure I've been accused by people, parents, children, everybody. Oh, well, Cyrus only got to do that because he's your child. And I'm like, actually, Cyrus got to do that thing because he applied for it and didn't tell his mother. So because there's I mean, there have been a few things that he's done that I'm like, uh I'm like, uh, did I even know you were doing that? And he goes, You didn't really need to know, did you? He goes, I could do it on my own. So, but it but it has been I I tease them forever that this school year, both of them are in school and at the high school, and I said, Oh, we're gonna ride to school together every day, boys. And they're like, No. And we have two or three times, but but Cyrus co-ops this year, so he leaves. But the first few days of school, we did all ride together. I think primarily so he could just make his mom happy for three days out of the school year. But um, but I mean it's but I think it's probably challenging for any teacher mom that their child is even in the building. Because, you know, my children, I mean, they probably feel like they've been in FFA since they were infants. Because, you know, when we go to FFA camp, they've gone to FFA camp every single year. And we were very fortunate we even got to go in the years when they didn't have F in COVID year when they didn't have FFA camp. But, you know, when they go to camp, it was like, oh, we know where everything's at. And so they assume every kid knows where everything's at. Or but I but I didn't ever take them to national convention, and I only Cyrus went as an infant estate convention, but then no other time because as I tell people, it you can be a real good mom or you can be a real good ag teacher, but it's hard to be both at the same time.
SPEAKER_01So, yeah, that's something that I've seen just from the outside looking in at those most of those situations is you know from a lot of people might think that yeah, those kids are getting preferential treatment or whatever because their mom's in the building, but most of the time it's the opposite of that, that their their parents are going to be harder on her and on them in those situations than they would somebody else's kids.
SPEAKER_00You've you've always held your FFA kids to a high standard, and and I know you held those boys to a higher standard even than what you expect out of a regular student.
SPEAKER_05So I told Cyrus when he started the high school that he had to be above reproach, that people couldn't think that he was getting to do things because he was my child. Yeah. So but but I we also have have balanced really well because Chris Thomas, I mean, that's what I tell Cyrus, I'm like, you need to talk to your ag teacher. And so there's lots of times when they discuss things and I'm like, look, I'll be the mom and come in, but you two need to figure this out. And sometimes I'm not sure that the two of them together is very good because they decide things that I'm like, this was a bad decision, boys, and they're like, I'd be fine.
SPEAKER_00You think they team up against you once in a while?
SPEAKER_05Well, they don't team up against me, they just team up together, which Cyrus started to kindergarten when Chris Thomas started teaching at LaRue County. So uh I I can r retire when Avery graduates, and so in the last couple of years he's teased me that when Cyrus graduates, he'll just leave. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, that's not how that works.
SPEAKER_00You both can't leave at the same time.
SPEAKER_05No, no, no, no. That's very difficult on programs when both A teachers leave at the same time. So, how many years has Chris been there then? This is year 13th.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Where uh he said he's gonna have a hard time remembering after Cyrus graduates because that's how he can always keep up with it.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_02So you've been there for for 25 years. What are what are some things that you've noticed, like let's just say things that you've noticed in the teaching profession, what's changed the most over the last 25 years?
SPEAKER_05Access to information is very different. I mean, you all talked about, you know, you were in high school and I started teaching. My guess is if you had a phone, it was probably a flip phone or a phone that couldn't text or couldn't do all that. Now, however, I mean you can almost run your farming operation from your phone. And that access to information is just so much different than it was when I started. And I mean, kids have laptops now. I mean, I I can remember I taught an agcom class for a few years and getting the computer lab, like it would infuriate the English teachers that I just wanted the computer lab one period. And I'm like, well, I don't need it the rest of the day. But I mean, but that access to information I think is the biggest difference. Um I think we've seen some changes post-COVID, and we we lacked institutional leadership from kids because they didn't get to see. And the real unfortunate part for us is we had some really rockin' and rolling kids in that time right before COVID, going right into COVID, that those kids that came behind them didn't get to benefit from. And I I think sometimes that kids are a little more reluctant to do things now than they were. I mean, probably um Matt and Mark, uh, when they were in Central Hardens FFA, they were like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll do that so I can get us some farm work.
SPEAKER_00But we still had to do the farm work when we got done. So it didn't really matter. But but yes, you're exactly right.
SPEAKER_05But I mean, you you're like, hey, I get to go have fun for a while. You know, there'll be girls there, so uh that's always motivation for high school. So I mean, I think that there's the the kids now that they'll just be like, oh, I'll just see it on somebody's Snapchat. Yeah. That they don't they don't have to experience in them themselves. So and I had some kids that were doing something. We we've done these monthly mingles this year, and they do different things, and they were just singing karaoke this last Friday, and then there were kids videoing it. And I was like, gosh, when I started teaching, kids didn't even have the ability to do that. So you could be as silly as you wanted to, and there was no evidence, but now if you're silly, everybody has the evidence. And I think kids are a little more I think kids are a lot more guarded in what they're willing to do because they're afraid to be silly.
SPEAKER_00I never thought about that, but that's a good point. That's a very good point. And and FFA camp has you know, in 20 year change, it's it's changed a lot. With probably with the addition of cell phones. You don't have the the talking and the camaraderie amongst the people that are there because you didn't have anything to do for five days except talk to the people you went with and meet new people. You pretty much had no contact with the outside world.
SPEAKER_05And and now all the cabins have air conditioning in them. So, you know, when you went yes, so in the afternoons when you were like, I gotta go play sports because it won't do me good to go in that cabin.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05But uh now they're like, Oh, I'm gonna go back to the cabin and take a nap. So I usually always go back in the time when they're trying to take a nap and let the door slam about four times and wake them up so there's no we uh Mark, you might remember we we had uh Larry Hendrick was our one of our ag teachers.
SPEAKER_00Um and he had a rule when you went to FA camp that when it was breakfast time you left the cabin and you didn't come back to the cabin until it was time to go to bed. Except for him.
SPEAKER_01He would sneak back for more than that's true.
SPEAKER_00He would sneak back to the cabin and take a nap for for more than you know five or ten minutes to get something. But but you're you know, and and we would all take fans and we'd complain about the air conditioning. He's like, we're not here to be in the cabin. We're not taking an air conditioner.
SPEAKER_01But I can remember I can remember chapters packing in window unit air conditioners and putting them in while the and I was always so jealous of that. Yep.
SPEAKER_05When I guess when Avery went, when he was just a baby, so he'd have probably been like six, seven months old, uh he it was so hot that first Monday night, and he could not go to sleep at all. And I finally took him up on the pavilion in a stroller, and I fell asleep on the stage on the pavilion. And then these kids came up to the Coke machine and woke me up getting a Coke. And I'm sure they were like, Why is this crazy lady sleeping out here? But it was because I knew the girls couldn't sleep because he was awake. So I had to, that was the time that I had to call Ryan and say, You got to come get him because he cannot sleep in this heat. And then it and then it rains and then it was cool and he would have been fine. But I was like, I can't sleep on the pavilion stage every night.
SPEAKER_00But he got to spend quality time at home with dad in his formative years.
SPEAKER_05So he did. He did.
SPEAKER_01So we kept talk keep talking about you've been doing this for 25 years. You've got to have some big moments that have stuck out. As far as either FFA or just AgED in general, what are some of the I guess biggest moments, most important, best memories, or whatever that you have, just a couple of the highlights from over the years?
SPEAKER_05Um, I mean, I guess probably early in my career, one of the biggest things I I got to be on stage when Charlie Doom won a national proficiency.
SPEAKER_01And you would have been really early in your career for yeah.
SPEAKER_05I think that was my second year. She was she was a national finalist, and Andrew Bell was also a national finalist. And he won the trip to Costa Rica.
SPEAKER_00I know what your highlight was of that trip.
SPEAKER_05Well, I mean, I mean, when I went on that when I went on that Costa Rica trip, like the kids that were American stars that were on that trip were barely younger than me. I mean, barely younger than me. Because, you know, those kids had all waited till the end that they could apply. And I mean, I think I was one of them. I think I was literally a year older than him. And it was like, oh, okay. He was like, Oh, you're married? And I'm like, Yes, I am married, and I'm also not moving to Minnesota. So we're good. But but it was so and then I also got to go to Ireland with Turner Cottrell on that trip, and that was, I mean, a huge thing, but that was like two different trips because when I went to Costa Rica in that day and age, I mean, I had to buy international calling cards to call home. And when I went to Ireland, everybody's on the Wi-Fi on the bus. And I was like, this is like two different things. And and when I went to Costa Rica, like I had kids I had to keep up with. I'm sure, Matt, when you went, you know, there's probably somebody that like kept up with you the whole time that's like your person. But when I went to Ireland, the kids were kind of like, Do you really need to keep up with us? And I'm like, I guess not. I had three kids that were like, please keep up with us, please don't lose us. Uh, but but going on that trip was huge. I mean, kind of to book in that first thing. I mean, getting to go on stage this year with Cyrus as a proficiency finalist. I mean, um, yeah, he didn't win. And so I was so sad when I came off the stage and I was like, Cyrus, do you need a minute? And he was like, No, where are they sitting at? And I'm like, Well, I do need a minute. I'm sorry, I'm your mom. And when I sat down next to Chris Thomas, he was like, Look, most kids' moms didn't get them to that point, so you did all right. And I was like, Okay. Uh, but but I mean, and and teaching with Chris Thomas has has been a joy for the last 13 years because um we have very similar views on a lot of things. You know, if you're lazy, we don't really appreciate that. And if you're not willing to put in the effort, we don't appreciate that either. So um, and then I don't know, I really like the fact that my kids, when they go places, we often adopt children. Um, Kyle Kelly uh often tells the story about when he was at camp with Owen County that our boys just like adopted him because he was the only boy from his chapter. And I mean, it wasn't like just that group of bull of boys that adopted kids. Like every time we go places, I'll be like, Who who is this? And they'll be like, Oh, this is Susie from wherever. I'm like, why do we have Susie? And they're like, Well, her chapter's not going to the session, so we said she could sit with us, or her chapter's not going to, I'm like, whatever. So I mean, I appreciate the fact that you know, my kids know that I'm gonna hold them accountable to things and those kind of things, but they're like, oh, come on, baby, we we're gonna take you with us because you know, they know that if they're having a good time, whatever we're doing, they want other people to have good time too.
SPEAKER_01So you mentioned the Costa Rica deal, and I mean you are a hundred percent the only reason that I went on that trip. I had absolutely zero uh zero desire to go or even apply for it at all because I was 18 years old, and that was gonna be 10 days that I had to to be away from the farm uh during the summertime. But but you pulled me aside and you said, I don't care what you think, you're going. And you've got the opportunity to go, you're gonna go. So and turned out to be one of the best trips I've ever taken. I still have friends that I talk to to this day from that trip, and that's been 20 years since I took that.
SPEAKER_05So well, I I said I said this to Quent Pottinger early in my career, and now I'm like, wow, I was so wise, and I don't even know why I was so wise when I said this. But I told him, I said, you'll work the rest of your life, but you only have the opportunity to do this, and I think it was going to Eiffel is what I was telling him about right now. I said, So do it now, so later on you can do all these other things. And I mean, and I still tell kids that because they'll be like, Well, I don't know if I can I'm like, guys, you're only a kid once. Take advantage of every opportunity because if you don't, you'll be an adult and be like, Man, I wish I'd done that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's exactly right. I I remember my summer before my for my senior year, I went to we had state convention and then I was home maybe two weeks. We went to Eiffel, then I went to FFA camp, then it was our fair week, then we skipped a week, we went on vacation as a family, and then the next week I think we went back to school. I mean, my whole summer had basically no time in there for you know anything other than that, but it was it was great memories, great friends, people that we still talk to. So if you're if you're listening out there and you're worried about uh like like Misty said, working, don't worry about it. Just go do the fun thing while you're in school and it'll be there. Because you'll get old like us and you'll say, Man, I'm kind of burnt out on working. I wish I could have a little more fun.
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean when I go ahead.
SPEAKER_05Uh I mean when I was in high school, my my parents, I mean, I grew up on a farm, but my parents were always willing to let me go and do things in the summer. And when I got my driver's license, I remember we were sitting on the tailgate of our little S10 that we had, and this bus of kids was going to EKU's field day, and as they went by, they were FFA kids, and they're like yelling out the window, hey, Miss D. Hey, and my dad is like, How do you even know these people? And we've been to camp with them, and my dad was like, the Hardensburg Heartbreaker. And I was like, Oh my gosh, how awful. Can't believe my dad said this about me. But I mean, you know, those are experiences that if kids don't go places and do things, they just don't get those experiences.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that's exactly what I was about to say is it's it's about having fun too, but the biggest thing that you don't realize when you're that age is the network that you build, and that's what sets the stage for the rest of your life. Uh, and making those connections and and being able to have people to call on all across the state and all across the country that you never would have met if you'd hadn't if you'd stayed on the farm or stayed at home and and uh kept working and not got out and done that for a week or two during the summer. So, Misty, one last thing before we wrap up here. Um what would be some advice that you would have to somebody that's either looking at a career in ag education or uh maybe is already in college and going through the ag ed program. Maybe they're thinking about switching their major towards the end and they're uh still on the fence about whether they want to do it or not. Uh, what's some advice you would give to some young people that want to want to teach ag ed or just want to teach in general?
SPEAKER_05I think sometimes the thing we forget in ag education is it's ag education first. Like most of my stories, most of my fun stuff is FFA, but it it starts in the classroom. And if you're somebody that's you know wants to do ag education and you're not from a farm and you don't have a very good like hands-on knowledge of farm concepts, I'm certain that you could probably pull into most farms and ask if you could help them do something, and they'd probably be like, Oh, yes, I'd love to have the help because I don't have enough. But I think that hands-on experience really makes a difference. And maybe you can't work on a farm a whole summer or a whole semester or a whole something, but having that, because I mean, farmers just have a different work ethic than everybody else. And so if you don't understand that, it's hard for uh I'm in some ag ed groups that are like ag teachers, and so many times these young teachers are like, well, I have these farm kids, and they're and I'm like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, don't fuss about your farm kids. I'm like, if they're not engaged, that's on you. That's not on them. I'm like, maybe, maybe what you're teaching is not their favorite thing, but you can make it to where you can get those kids engaged in that. Uh I think about I had some boys a few years ago that were cutting tobacco for somebody, and they never cut tobacco and they didn't know what they were doing. And I said, Boys, if you'll just twist that stalk a little bit when you go to cut it, I said, it'll cut a lot easier for you. And one of them looked at me like, you don't know what you're talking about. And the other one said, I'm gonna try it. And I said, Okay. They came back the next day, and the one was like, Oh, Miss Pivans, I knew you knew what you were talking about. And the other one goes, Hmm, I did try it. I guess you knew what you were talking about. So And I mean, when I started teaching, there were not a ton of female ag teachers. So, I mean, lots of boys that I had in class probably thought I was just some dumb woman that was trying to teach them ag. But and and so many teachers of ag now are female. And, you know, if you're if you're a farm boy and you're a hardcore core redneck farm boy, you probably think this woman doesn't know what she's talking about. So if you have that background experience, if you have that, I think that's so important to give you credibility in the classroom, especially when you're young. I mean, when you're when you're old like me, it's like, okay, maybe you know a thing or two, but when you're young, it's like, I don't think you know what you're doing. So uh I remember when we used to play inside the greenhouse, I'd have older gentlemen come in, they'd be like, oh, my ag teachers didn't look like you. And I'm like, yay!
SPEAKER_00You brought up a good point. Um touch on real quick before we before we go, but you mentioned there wasn't a lot of ag teachers that were female when you started. There wasn't a lot of female, there was a fair amount of female involvement in ag classes and FFA. Now is it 60 plus percent probably female?
SPEAKER_05I I think that I think the national FFA statistic is like 75% of the leadership positions are held by girls.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so you can see it here locally in in our local chapters that we see more often how many more girls there are involved.
SPEAKER_05Well, and I will say we try to work very hard to keep boys involved. And sometimes you have to do some different things to keep boys engaged and involved. Because I mean, when you all were in high school, boys, you know, once again, the whole phone thing, boys don't want to be embarrassed, so you didn't have to worry about that. But now boys do not want to be embarrassed, so they are very reluctant to step up and do things. So you've got to hook them in to get them to do it. And I mean, that's they talk, you know, nationally about what a problem that is. Like there's not enough male students in colleges, there's not enough male students, you know, in in ag programs, there's not enough male ag teachers. Uh that's a huge, huge problem. But I mean, skilled trades, I mean, they can make two or three times probably what I make in salary, and I don't blame them for doing those things. In fact, sometimes I'm like, dang, I should have become a welder. But I mean, like, it's it's just difficult to get those boys involved. If you can get them hooked on something, then they'll usually come back, but some of them are hard to catch. You would think a three to one ratio of girls to boys would be enough hook to get the boys involved, but well, no, because those those are the kind of girls that'll just run over the boys. They're like, I mean, your husband went for uh I mean he did, but he went to college to get a wife, and so he was successful, but I mean, and lots of boys do go to college to get a wife, so I mean that's exactly right.
SPEAKER_02All right, completely unrelated question as we wrap up. What was your favorite county to run a 5k in?
SPEAKER_05I I really had a good time when we ran in Pike County, only because, you know, we're on we're on the furthest uh east county we could get to. But those people treated us like we were celebrities. And we didn't know them. They didn't know us. We were not celebrities. We were just like, uh, okay. And they were like, oh, we're gonna run right up here on this hillside. And I'm like, that's not a hill, that's a mountain. And when we were running, all of a sudden I saw like pavement, and I was like, wonder why that pavement's there. Oh, it was when it was like so steep that like you couldn't just run in the gravel. You had to like get on the pavement in order to get traction. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm running on the side of a mountain in Pike County. So that was really fun. And lots of times Avery and I would we would run in eastern Kentucky when it would be really steep terrain. I'm like, Avery, I didn't realize we were flatlanders, but clearly we are flatlanders now because this is awful.
SPEAKER_04That would make a difference.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. I mean, but we had we had a good time in all the counties that we ran in, but uh that race, and it was real and it was like towards Christmas and it was really, really cold. But then when they had the bad flooding in eastern Kentucky, we literally ran right next to like where the football field was that they showed on the news. We ran right next to that, and I was like, oh my gosh. I'm like, most of the time you see pictures like that, and you're like, oh, that's so terrible. And I was like, I've been there. So that was pretty cool as well.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, thanks for coming on with us again. Uh, we appreciate you. It is Teacher Appreciation Week, and we do appreciate you. Uh, you're a staple in LaRue County and in the central Kentucky area uh for agriculture and ag education, and we appreciate all you do and appreciate for you listening. We know that you're a you're a listener every week as well. So and now you're almost as cool as Cyrus.
SPEAKER_05Well, I mean, I'll never get that point, but you know. We we uh Cyrus and I say he's hybrid vigor, so I was like, you got the best of both parents. So a little ag term in there. But thank you all for doing this, and I I uh feel like I've watched you all grow into the great adults you are now.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. Thanks a lot, Misty. All right, so thanks again to Misty for coming on, and again, that was our Premier Crop Insurance AG interview for this week. Sponsored by your friends at Premier Crop Insurance. If you have any crop insurance needs, give Eric Sweezy a shout at 270-991-1333. Thanks again to Eric and Premier Crop Insurance for sponsoring that interview this week.
SPEAKER_00How many calls do you think he's gotten this week because of frost?
SPEAKER_01Maybe a few. Some replant claims. It definitely bit some stuff. You know what didn't get bit? Miraculously, my seed corn that was still in the shed is perfectly fine. It did it did not get any frost on it. Good place for it.
SPEAKER_02That was a I can't believe how that worked out. Yeah, that's you, yeah, that's you, you had you were planning that the whole time. A hundred percent.
SPEAKER_00Hey, well done. Bravo. Good job. Very practical, excellent work. The the frost finished off my alfalfa in case you know we talked about my alfalfa. I don't think it finished too long ago. That's the story we're going.
SPEAKER_02Already heading downhill, though.
SPEAKER_00Have you not sprayed it with anything else? No, I've not sprayed it.
SPEAKER_02It's just naturally put it out of its misery or something at this point.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02I think some lady was out there with a roundup sprayer and just sprayed it off. Easy. I'm sorry. I said I wouldn't do anything else.
SPEAKER_00And it's Roundup Ready Alpha Alpha, anyway. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we uh we did have some frosts this week, and it's crazy how stuff has been affected differently. So I was driving, I went to town today to that's once it trained to uh run some errands and stuff, and hadn't been through there since the frost, and came by a certain stretch of road, I won't name where it was, but was looking at a field of corn on one side of the road and it was up and looked pretty unscathed, and it was the same farmer had one side of the road as had down the road just a little piece on the other side, and then I just glanced over at it and thought, that looks like it was just planted. But I would have thought he would have planted both of those about the same time and was on the phone with somebody else, and uh he said, Yeah, did you see that field of so-and-so's? It's pretty well toast. And I was like, Well, yeah, I drove by it, but I thought it had just been planted. He said, No, that was six-inch tall corn before the frost, and I mean you couldn't see it from the road, it you just saw planter marks, which I'm sure some of what you were seeing there was just this black wilted-down corn that driving by at 60 mile an hour, it uh it just looked like marks in the dirt. But yeah, crazy and crazy how just a little bit of difference made all the difference. And I know I've talked to several people on cornfields that have been out walking that say like you might find a scattered plant that survived, or even just a scattered plant that got frosted here and there, and it's like variants even within a few feet of the row.
SPEAKER_02Well, I don't have any any grain crops planted, but I could tell that Johnson grass was burnt bad.
SPEAKER_01So I've noticed today what I've been out some the John, you know, we had a pretty good flush of Johnson grass because we've been so warm for so long and it is gone. Like it it looks like you sprayed it with round up.
SPEAKER_02Yep. It was, I mean, it was it was black that next day, and then it's it's dying down quick. I I know the the typical frost waiting period is is 10 to 14 days. Yeah. And yeah, it's but it looks like it's gonna be dead down before that, but um, but anyway, yeah, it's uh it's kind of messed up some of our crop rotation or our uh pasture rotation. But um yeah, beware of that if if you haven't already noticed or or seen that somewhere.
SPEAKER_01So and we're getting a little more frequent regular rainfall. It seems like you know, once you get that one, we usually call it like a drought buster rain, that one good three quarters to an inch of rain that gets everything muddy one time, it's like you get back into that cycle. But Mark was talking about his. Alfalfa. I thought I had an alfalfa failure this spring. We had planted some the last of March and I had written it off and uh actually had a buddy that had texted me that said he had swung in and looked at it, and he's like, You've still got alfalfa coming up. There's no way. This stuff's been sitting in the ground for like five weeks. And uh and I knew some of it had germinated when we got a little bit of a shower early on, and I stopped and looked at it today and walked it, and it's gonna be okay. Like there's still alfalfa coming up. I've got alfalfa anywhere from six inches tall to just germinating, but I think it's all gonna be there and it's gonna it's gonna be okay now. So it's I know uh I've got one hay customer that's a lawyer, loyal listener that's gonna be relieved to hear that. I hadn't told him that yet, but things were gonna get tight if we had to completely abandon that one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, and we also we gotta give some credit where it's due. Our uh uh our guy over at Central Kentucky weather, he he was pretty spot on. You know, he he he called the rains, he called the storms, he uh you know pretty much said it's gonna be a wet and and cool May, and here we are. And it didn't look like I think in the 10 day there's not a day in the 80s. It's all mid-70s and below. That kind of weather.
SPEAKER_01He was predicting a cool, wet summer all the way through, so hopefully, hopefully the street keeps going here and we uh keep it up because that would be excellent. No, it's a little difficult if you get out and run the countryside now, you know, three weeks ago you'd go out and drive around and think, man, there's been a lot planted, and now it's to the point that you get out and look around and stuff's not happening just at a record pace where everybody's out planting a hundred acres a day every day. And uh you look around now and you think, man, there's really a lot that's not planted once you get to looking. So uh going to be a weird growing season, uh top dress, spray, harvest, that kind of stuff, because this crop is gonna stretch out from the end of March to probably the end of May as far as when it was planted, and then we're probably gonna have a little bit of replant scattered in there now because of this freeze damage. And kind of gonna be a crazy year. We should have some uh some variation there to see which planting dates were the right ones come harvest. Yep.
SPEAKER_02We're really getting crushed for time. This happened, the the passing of David Allen Coe. We we heard about it. I mean, literally the minute we got done recording last week's episode. So we just got like one or two minutes here. What's your what's your what's your uh favorite David Allen Coe song?
SPEAKER_00You never even called me called me by my name. Is that even that is the name of the Monday? I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Um never even called me by it's a good one and I like it, but I'm I I believe perfect country and western song. I know. That's the favorite one that we can talk about on air. I I like the ride. That's one of my favorites. The ride is the red one. I do like the red neck. Did you all know? I don't like long-haired redneck just because I mean I just can't. You're not a long-haired redneck.
SPEAKER_01Did you know I I saw this pop up in uh one of these Reel things this week. Did you know that he wrote an entire Jimmy Buffett this album? No, I did not. And I think it's the lead song is uh Jimmy Buffett Doesn't Live in Margaritaville. No Key West. Jimmy Buffett doesn't live in Key West anymore, or something like that is what it's called. Yeah, he wrote it. Look it up on YouTube sometime. He wrote and they wrote an entire album that was uh a Jimmy Buffett this album because apparently they were feuding in like the eighties. So kind of, yeah, some good songs there, but man, David Allan Cole was a little bit of a disturbed kind of strange individual. Especially if you saw like any performances of his in the like the later years, the last few years. He was he was.