Dalton Smith
Age: 17
Parents: Jodie and Mike Schmid
Hometown: Rolla, Mo.
FFA Chapter: Rolla FFA
FFA Advisor: Cord Jenkins
How Are You Involved in Agriculture: “Our family has a cow-calf operation on 60 acres here and another 90 acres by Lenox. We raise Angus and Angus-cross. We have started to move more toward full bred Angus. We also have two Wagyu cows. They are a Japanese breed. They were originally bred for hauling carts and have really muscular front ends. There are less than 5,000 of them in the United States. They are a smaller, slower growing breed, not as small as a Dexter but still not the standard size. Their beef has incredible marbling and is really expensive.”
Dalton continued, “I show dairy cows, registered Holsteins. This is my fifth year, showing. I do that at the University of Missouri. The shows operate on a point system, and as the points add up, then the awards are based on the accumulated points.
“I’m currently showing steers and heifers. I might be showing a goat, a meat goat in the future as well.”
FFA Activities: “Currently, I’m the sentinel in the local FFA chapter, which is an officer’s position. The sentinel stands by the door, welcomes people as they come in, makes certain everyone has everything they need. The sentinel sort of acts as a host for the meetings. Next year, I’d really like to be our FFA president.”
Future Plans: “I plan to go to technical college and learn about heavy equipment and welding.
I might become an ag teacher in the future as I’d love to stay in the field of agriculture. The dream would be full-time farming but I’m not sure about that in this economy. I know full time farmers and I would really like to do that someday.
“The two biggest things we all have to do in agriculture today is realize how needed agriculture will continue to be in the future to feed our growing population.
All of us in this business are going to have to work even harder to keep raising enough food for this country’s growth. The other thing we need to do is to work to fight so much of the misinformation that is out there. We don’t need to let others, the animal rights people or anyone else, hijack our story, our way of life and tell it the way they want it to be. This is our story and we need to tell others the way life really is on our farms and ranches.”
