Students Rev Up for Annual Drive Your Tractor to School Day in Lawrence County

May 15, 2023

By Jean-Paul MacDonald, Farms.com; Image via www.twitter.com

In a delightful tradition marking Future Farmers of America Week, students in Lawrence County, Ohio, celebrated the end of the 2022-2023 school year with the annual Drive Your Tractor to School Day. On May 11th, the students at Symmes Valley High School rolled up to campus in style, showcasing a variety of tractors, from Massey Fergusons to John Deeres, and even riding mowers.

Driving tractors came naturally to the students, with some claiming it to be as easy as driving a car. The event brought a sense of camaraderie and excitement as they enjoyed the experience with their friends. Freshman Connor Cade expressed his enthusiasm, highlighting the fun of farming and the joy of being able to share the moment with his peers. Junior Jacob Cade echoed the sentiment, emphasizing the longstanding tradition that spans generations in his family.

Drive Your Tractor to School Day not only provided an entertaining diversion but also served as a way for students to show support for local farmers. By participating in this event, they demonstrated their connection to the farming community and celebrated the important role of agriculture in their lives.

The event captured the spirit of Future Farmers of America Week, fostering a sense of pride and appreciation for farming traditions. Driving their tractors to school allowed the students to pay homage to their agricultural heritage while creating lasting memories among friends and classmates.

The annual tractor parade at Symmes Valley High School serves as a testament to the students' dedication to farming and their commitment to honoring the rich farming legacy in Lawrence County.

Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.