Rounding up interest at arenas, expos, schools

Colorado Farm Show is Jan 25-27

By NCTA News

Rulon Taylor has spent most of life around agriculture.

Coming from a family of ag producers and educators, he is on familiar ground whether in a pasture sorting cattle, talking with members of an FFA chapter, or meeting rodeo athletes in the arena.

“This past week I visited with about 100 students, at Ainsworth High School, and then hosted two school groups here on campus,” said Taylor, one of two recruiting coordinators with the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture at Curtis.

Rulon Taylor and Andela Taylor (no relation) were hired by NCTA in October 2020, as many colleges, national and state programs were closed by the global pandemic. Classes, contests, and conversations were no longer face-to-face but mainly virtual.

“We were fortunate as NCTA had protocols in place which allowed the campus to be pretty much fully operational with in-person classes, campus visitors and tours, and most of our traditional events,” Rulon Taylor said.

“While much of the world was going virtual, and travel or public restrictions halted large conventions, expos, and college fairs, our stakeholders, students and their families, alumni and ag partners could still come to visit us at NCTA,” he said.

After 15 months of cancelled events from March 2020 to July 2021, college recruiting and travel gradually reopened across the U.S. The two Taylors split travel duties for NCTA outreach across Nebraska and surrounding states.

They took NCTA to public venues at national contests for high school rodeo in Lincoln and college rodeo finals in Wyoming. In October, they drove to Indianapolis and back for National FFA Convention.

Last semester, providing students were healthy, NCTA Aggie competition teams for stock dogs, shotgun sports, rodeo, livestock judging and crops judging traveled to collegiate contests. Some are restarting road trips again this month.

Last week, 10 Aggie students and two professors went the National Western Stock Show in Denver.

“It is refreshing for all of us to be back on the road, engaging in conversations with young agriculturists and discussing their goals for the future,” Rulon Taylor said.

For the Colorado Farm Show in Greeley on January 25-27, he will set up and staff the NCTA booth in its traditional location, Booth 5 near the east entrance of the Exhibition Building at Grove Island Park.

The large show covers four buildings, along with outdoor displays. Educational forums and daily programs are held in the Event Center.

Part of the University of Nebraska system, the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture is a two-year institution with a statewide mission of preparing students for successful careers in agriculture, veterinary technology and related industries. NCTA is known for its affordable tuition, high job-placement rate for its graduates, and for the success of student teams in competitive activities including crops judging, ranch horse events, livestock judging, shotgun sports, stock dog trials, and intercollegiate rodeo. The college is consistently ranked as one of the best two-year schools in the nation.