Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

Vocational Agriculture Day at Tarleton in 1920

Today the Tarleton main campus was filled with some 1700 high school agriculture students from all over Texas. The Agriculture Department is, and has been for most of the history of the school, one of the most avid recruiters of future Tarleton students. As you can see in the photo above, high school vocational agriculture students even had "their" day at Tarleton as far back as 1920.

Tarleton's agriculture program is rated second of fourteen universities in Texas offering agriculture degrees and third nationally among non-land grant universities. Tarleton agriculture graduates have a reputation for high performance and for their contributions to the profession. Enhancing the program and Tarleton's contribution to Texas and the United States is the new Southwest Regional Dairy Center that is under construction. It will be a state-of-the-art teaching facility with a mission to "support for teaching, research, and service/outreach programs to meet the need of higher education, the dairy industry and society in Texas and the southwest."

The total number of high school students at Tarleton today was in excess of 6000. Some 1700 were on the main campus, 2000 were at the Agriculture Center, 1000 were at the Hunewell Ranch, and 1600 were at the Lone Star Arena. While some will end up majoring in agriculture at Tarleton, others will come to Tarleton, but pursue other majors, so the FFA day at Tarleton is truly a long time recruiting event.

Way to go Ag!

Tarleton State University Agriculture Department.

Tarleton State University, Dick Smith Library, Cross Timbers Historic Images Project, Stephenville Museum photo.