Saxony Lutheran teacher and student putting future in FFA

For Micah Bristow, growing up in Mandon, Missouri, and going to Northwestern High, the FFA was almost destiny.

“I grew up in north Missouri. Went to a real small school, rural area. It’s just pretty much a given that you were going to be in it.” Bristow said.

Due to his father passing when Bristow was in eighth grade, he took a job early at a local grain elevator. This experience had already taught him many of the skills FFA teaches so by his freshman year in high school Bristow was ready to take on leadership roles and eventually became a state officer.

Bristow remembers his AG teacer, Phil Hayes, creating a day-to-day camaraderie with the students.

“There’s a lot of them, that’s the only connection they make.” Bristow said of Hayes who he credited with, “just having their well-being in mind.”

As the current AG teacher at Saxony-Lutheran high, Bristow tries to foster the same camaraderie with his students. However, he feels it’s almost not a job. His students work so hard they make it easy for him.

“It’s kind of an odd place to work because you don’t have to do the work for them. They’re self-motivated self-starters. Anytime we do anything they put a lot of effort into it.” Bristow said.

Several of his students show cattle — some on the national level and going to shows every week. A lot of them have jobs on farms, feed stores, fencing companies, welding shops. Bristow is impressed with how they take initiative and put forth effort to make sure that whatever we’re doing is a success.

One of Bristow’s students is Cory Word, who was recently named the Area 15 Star Farmer. Word works for his grandfather on Hellwege farms that was started back in 1944 by Word’s great-grandfather. Along with the farm, being in the FFA is a family tradition. Both Word’s brother and his grandfather were in FFA.

Hellwege plants corn and soybeans and raises cattle. Word also raises pigs as a project with FFA. He has been buying feeders, pigs raised to be food, and selling them through local processors to individuals. He advertises on Facebook and flyers that he puts up around town.

Word is a senior and for his future he will be going to a diesel tech in Rankin. Trained on semi-trucks he can take those skills and apply it to tractors and other farm equipment. He was drawn to diesel tech because he does all the service work on the machinery of his grandfather’s farm. He sees his future as bringing this knowledge back to benefit the family farm for years to come.

In the meantime, Word is preparing for the state FFA convention where he will interview for Star Farmer for the state of Missouri. His teacher Bristow and his fellow students are helping him by quizzing him so he’s ready to talk about any aspect of his SAE, supervised agricultural experience.

Bristow is also looking to the future. This will be his last year as the AG teacher for Saxony-Lutheran High. He has started his own business, Circle Five Cow School, and it has taken off in the last year. It’s a remote school where they train cattle farmers the correct techniques around artificial insemination and pregnancy of their livestock.

“We train cattle farmers from Tennessee to Texas and from ages 12 to 80 years old.” Bristow said.

Bristow, of course, puts many FFA principles into practice in this new venture.

“We want them to get a good education so they can then improve their bottom line.” Bristow said.

For Bristow, and his students such as Word, the heritage and history of the FFA has given them a firm footing to stand on as they look forward to a bright future ahead.