By Elizabeth Owsley
For many students from the University of Missouri’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, a highlight of their childhood summers was attending the Missouri State Fair. Whether they were exhibiting livestock or 4-H projects, or helping in the FFA building, memories were made every August in Sedalia, Missouri.
The 11-day agriculture expo hosts thousands of people from across the state each summer, from both inside and outside the agricultural community. An event of that size takes a large team to execute — and many CAFNR students make the transition from exhibitors to event staff at an early age.
Lane Falch grew up showing sheep with 4-H and FFA at the state fair. After graduating from Mizzou in May with a degree in animal sciences, he went to work fulltime as manager of the university’s Rocheford Turkey Research Farm. When Bryon Wiegand, director of the Division of Animal Sciences, offered him the opportunity to be superintendent of this year’s state fair poultry barn, Falch jumped at the chance to learn a new facet of livestock exhibiting.