By Shelby Shank
Field Editor

The 2023 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR) is just around the corner, and some volunteers have been learning about agriculture to prepare for the city’s big event.

The 11th Annual HLSR Tours Committee Ag Education Day was held Jan. 21 to train volunteers to lead agricultural tours at the fair.

The HLSR Tours Committee is an education-based committee. The committee is responsible for giving agricultural tours around the fairgrounds to school kids, adults, international visitors and VIP guests during the fair.

Many groups assist with the Ag Education Day, including Texas Farm Bureau, Washington County Farm Bureau, Walker County Farm Bureau, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and Blinn College.

“A lot of volunteers come with no background in agriculture or have never been on a farm or worked with animals. I never did,” Vinny Chavez, HLSR Committee chair, said. “That’s why we do our Ag Education Day that is helped by Texas Farm Bureau. We bring in speakers to talk about beef, chickens or misconceptions of agriculture to give our volunteers factual information to give during tours.”

Walker County Farm Bureau has been involved with the Ag Education Day for at least eight years.

“We set up the program, the talk, the leaders, the speakers, and we provide the meal and a welcome reception in the morning when the volunteers get there,” Colt Christian, Walker County Farm Bureau president, said. “We have all kinds of presenters come in to speak on a specific topic from the bee industry to cattle, and we have the Texas Farm Bureau Doorways to Agriculture trailer come in and talk about misconceptions in agriculture. It’s a broad range of every kind of commodity that Texas covers.”

Washington County Farm Bureau has been helping with the Ag Education Day for three years.

“People are so far removed from agriculture. They don’t understand where their food comes from,” Larry Winkelmann, Washington County Farm Bureau president, said. “I think it’s important to train a committee like this so they can go to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and talk with people about how their food gets to the grocery store. There’s a lot of hard work and time put into producing all this food.”

The Tours Committee focuses on sharing the importance of agriculture in Texas’ economy through the AGVENTURE tours. Over 300,000 visitors walk through the exhibits each year. About 10,000 of those visitors are school kids on field trips, and the remaining consists of scheduled tours and fairgoers.

“The volunteers are a great group of people. We all work together,” Chavez said. “It’s one big family that is just a blast.”

HLSR is Feb. 28 through March 19.

To learn more, visit rodeohouston.com.

For more information about TFB’s agricultural education efforts, visit texasfarmbureau.org/aitc.

Learn more about agriculture’s youth activities and opportunities at texasfarmbureau.org/youth.