AS THE sun breaks the horizon to begin the day, many can hear the rough but rhythmic sounds of a tractor approaching the parking lot of Lincoln County High School (LCHS).
Its appearance is a sign to those awaiting that the day’s festivities for the annual Lincoln County Tractor Day are underway. For the last 44 years, this unique event has taken place to showcase the school’s National FFA Organization (FFA) and offer a fun way to recruit future members.
For the day’s events, tractors begin to roll into the LCHS parking lot around 5:30 a.m. All tractors are on-site at 6:45 a.m. to avoid the school and work traffic and to get lined up. According to Julie Burnum, the agriculture education teacher and FFA advisor, the event is shared area-wide thanks to the local radio station and Hunstville-based television station, WHNT, which is on-site to air the day’s festivities.
“The local radio station was here, as well as Channel 19, to start broadcasting from the high school at 5:30 a.m.,” she explained. “Once everyone is lined up, they head off for the parade. When they are back and parked, group pictures with everyone are taken — from FFA members old and new, the community, to whoever has come out to share the day with us. We also have breakfast and then judging.”
Award categories include: first to arrive, longest drive, oldest tractor, newest tractor, cleanest tractor, dirtiest tractor, and largest horsepower. A $500 scholarship is also awarded thanks to Will Scott with Scott’s Orchard.
“Every year, he likes to use Tractor Day to give a scholarship to a student. This year’s recipient was Hillary Heffington. She’s our tractor president,” said Burnum.
Burnum added that students are ecstatic to participate in the parade.
“For some of them, it’s the main reason they take an [agriculture] class,” she said. “For others, they’ve watched their aunts, uncles, grandparents, and parents drive. It’s following in those footsteps and knowing that they’re doing something that their parents or grandparents did.”
The event began over four decades ago with Stan Golden and Tim Redd.
“We invite them every year, and they often come back and celebrate with us,” she said. “They help us judge our tractors and hand out awards. They are great guys, and we enjoy them participating with us.”
Burnum said that the event takes place each year during FFA week, which celebrates the National FFA organization throughout the nation.
“We always plan for it to be the Friday of National FFA Week,” she explained. “This year, we had [over] 250 members. Every student that sits in an agriculture classroom is able to participate and drive a tractor. We had between 25 and 30 tractors this year. We also opened the event to LCHS [alum]. [Any] former member could come back and drive this year.”
New this year was the addition of an invitation for local producers to participate in the parade and festivities.
“Our reasoning behind that was to show just how diverse the agriculture industry is in the county and around the country,” said Burnum.
Through events such as Tractor Day, Burnum hopes to educate students and the community that FFA is more than just being a farmer. While farming is an essential aspect of the organization, one can gain so much more through involvement.
“I was an FFA member, and I know full well what this program can do for kids,” she explained. “People like to think of it as Future Farmers of America. In 1988 that name changed, and it’s just the letters now. While we continue to recognize our history with FFA, the number one thing our students are doing by being involved in FFA is that they’re building leadership skills. They’re not necessarily going into farming. Agriculture is a hugely diverse industry. So the biggest thing we can offer our community is the development of leadership skills that these students can build and use in their careers, families, businesses, and our community. We want students to walk away with an appreciation of where their food, clothing, and housing come from and how all those necessities funnel back to the agricultural industry in some form or fashion.”
To learn more about Lincoln County’s FFA Chapter, email Burnum at jburnum@lcdoe.org. GN
